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Olaudah Equiano Sparknotes

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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is a very interesting autobiography of a man of African descent, who paints a picture for the readers as he takes us back through his journey of being born into a life with freedom, being captured and sold away into slavery, and later on buying his own freedom back. In the story, Mr. Equiano goes into great detail when describing his life as a slave, from his journey across Africa to his many voyages around the world. He narrates from a very dramatic perspective, which gives the reader a good vison of what is going on. Later on in life, Equiano decides to become a spokesman for the freedom of African slaves and writes his autobiography to have his voice heard. After publishing his book, …show more content…

After serving in numerous battels and completing a number of different trades, Equiano is sold away to a Quaker and starts working on a field plantation. Serving as a guager on the plantation, Equiano performed his job at a high magnitude and was able to be paid for his services. Equiano was even able to save enough money to purchase his own freedom. Shortly after becoming a freeman, he decides to become an abolitionist to fight against slavery and writes a story of his life to showing how Africans are humans just as equal as others. His book was to speak for the African slave population and push to bring an end to …show more content…

Whether his words were honest or not, his intentions behind the autobiography was to make it a point that slavery had no place in Gods’ world. Humans were to be treated equally no matter what the color of their skin be. He wanted the reader to view his life as a turning point for Africans and that they could be educated, respected, and valued as were white people. Mr. Equiano traveled the world to make it a point to end the African Slave trade. He even went to the extent of sending letters to Royal families, expressing how slavery was taking the life away from others. I believe Mr. Equiano was successful at getting his message understood by the people and contributed to the freedom that African’s have in today’s world. His voice was

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136 Words | 1 Pages

Olaudah Equiano begins his journal entry by describing the ocean and the slave ship, which were the first things he saw when he was taken onto the slave ship. He was fascinated by them, but he soon realized that it was going to be a horrific journey. Equiano’s first thought was that they were going to kill him, for they had a different skin tone, bore long hair, and spoke a different language. The crew beat Olaudah when he refused to eat. The conditions under the deck where Equiano lived were dreadful: people were packed together so tightly that they were fighting for breathing room.

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Both Mary and Equiano suffered greatly upon their being taken. They both endured mental, physical, and emotional distress at being torn from their families and friends. Equiano was only a child when he was taken from his village, away from everything and everyone he had ever known, so the natural fear of parental separation would be terrifying in itself. Many years later, as he was being shipped overseas, he witnessed the cruel and inhumane treatment of innocent people. In describing the living conditions of the slave ship, Equiano states, “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable” (Equiano 1279).

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In 1757, he was purchased by a naval commander for about £40, who named him Gustavas Vassa. Equiano was around 12 when he initially touched base in England. For part of that time he remained at Blackheath in London with the Guerin family. It is here that Equiano learnt how to read and write and to do

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915 Words | 4 Pages

He published an autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, which recounted his experiences and life as a slave. His autobiography served as one of the first testimonies in the abolition movement (Biography.com). His work began with a petition address to Parliament and ended with an antislavery letter to the Queen (Smith, 2013). Equiano’s book gave his readers a first hand perspective of slavery through the eyes of a former slave. This book made a vital contribution to the abolitionists’ cause and also raised slavery

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1405 Words | 6 Pages

17.1 Captivity and Enslavement, Olaudah Equiano, the interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano written by himself 1. What are Equiano’s impressions of the white men on the ship and their treatment of the slaves? How does this treatment reflect the slave traders’ primary concerns? Equiano’s first impression of these white men is a feeling of uncertainty and sorrow for the future. As his story goes on Equiano is afraid of these white men, but also he is wishing to end it all because of the conditions and treatment of the slaves.

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679 Words | 3 Pages

For example, when he told of his arrival in Virginia when he was the last of his group left at a plantation with no one to talk to and no way to understand those around him. To the British readers, who thrived in their own daily social interactions, the thought of such a lonely situation created feelings of pity and understanding. Equiano thought that he was “worse off than any of the rest” of his companions and “was constantly grieving and pining,” because of his loneliness. The British readers related to his emotional distress and allowed themselves to see him as a person. Therefore, they were more open to his ideas on slavery as a whole, because they could relate to Equiano's

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Now Mr. Douglass was a social reformer and abolitionist. He was also a slave as a matter of fact he was born a slave. He escaped at the age twenty he then went on the become and anti-slave activist. He has three autobiography’s and they are considered a narrative tradition just as important as the American autobiography’s.

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In Equiano's personal slave narrative, "The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African", Equiano flips the idea that the African people are backwards and barbaric, thus ripe for slavery, by demonstrating his personal exceptionalism through his literacy to show that it is truly the white people who are backwards and barbaric through their own hypocrisy. This reversal that Equiano demonstrates in his slave narrative shows that the savagery of African people exists as a misconception and makes the reader fully grasp the need to abolish slavery and any inequality present. On page seventy-eight, Equiano uses first person pronouns like 'I', 'my', and 'me' to separate himself from the other African people and whites around him. This separation that Equiano creates demonstrates his exceptionalism as an African slave.

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291 Words | 2 Pages

The publication of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass was monumental, a rhetorical strategy in itself. Frederick Douglass establishes his credibility by being one of the first African slaves to write of the brutal nature of slavery. He also writes on a personal level, connecting to those who had the same experiences and appealing to those yearning to learn of the situation. Douglass’ personal affiliation with slavery can be seen at times when he shares that “slavery would not always be able to hold [him] within its foul embrace.” (Douglass

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841 Words | 4 Pages

Equiano was just a kid at this time period, and it was common for slaves to undergo this sort of pressure that young. Many kids were taken from families as he was, so they could grow into slavery and become used to the ways. Equiano was in an area with his fellow Africans but felt lost as he was around men with different colored skin, that had "funny" language to him. Equiano witnessed many things during his slavery on the ship. Slaves weren't fed and were flogged for not eating.

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1432 Words | 6 Pages

His “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave”, (Document G) makes emotional reading (lurid descriptions like "bitterest dregs of slavery" or "broken in body, mind, and soul" elicited reactions of disgust and dejection, which is the what abolitionists were hoping for) and showed that ultimately a slave, long thought to be a possession and less than human, was very much a person with reason and intellect. It provides unsurmountable proof that like any man, a slave deserved a life of dignity and liberty. His work shed light on the constant hard-working and abusive lifestyle that slaves

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1080 Words | 5 Pages

Most of his time was in the movement of the abolition of slavery. He did not want any other black person to face brutality, humiliation, and pain. His arguments became very useful in the anti-slavery movement. It is through his experiences of being a slave that he urged for the abolition of slavery (Douglass, 1845). Douglass’ style of narration makes the reader to be involved in the story emotionally.

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How do we see courage in The Red Badge of Courage and hunger game” Hunger game and the red badge of courage are two classical works that describe one of the greatest things in the world----courage. In those masterpieces, both author put a great effort on describing how did their story’s protagonist overcame those difficulties in the war in order to structure a perfect story and impress their audiences. Although the two author used different way to present “courage” on their protagonists, there are still two way that the two author both used to present courage; first, both authors show courage on their story’s protagonists by illustrating their protagonists’ feeling after they made the decision and the reason of why they made their decision.

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588 Words | 3 Pages

He expressed his grief as well as cursed his fate. Equiano used a famous poem The Dying Negro to give insight of his feelings for his readers.

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1133 Words | 5 Pages

Both stories begin with shocking horrors, although much of Equiano’s narrative was based on these horrific scenes. Equiano’s survival of his involuntary journey to America, being enslaved as a child, and witnessing torture in Virginia, should be of aid towards the disapproval of the brutality of slavery. After buying his own freedom, Equiano became a front-runner in the abolitionist movement representing those who stood against slavery. Now in the 21st century we still fight for the freedom and self-respect we find in Equiano’s narrative. Rowlandson’s and Equiano’s narratives each represent a different characteristic of what it means to be part of the American nation.

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