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The Narrative And Life Of Olaudah Equiano

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The Atlantic Slave Trade has long been understood as an inhumane exchange of resources and humans, a practice that that perpetuated misery for commercial gain. This narrative is no doubt true, and there are no justifiable arguments to portray it as anything otherwise. However, as we look at this system from the top down, we tend to forget the thoughts and experiences of those directly involved in it. By overlooking the individual perspectives of the many Africans forced into slavery, we are completely missing an integral aspect of the system as a whole.
Part 1: Olaudah Equiano
The voices of those subjected to slavery are many, but among them, one of the most influential was that of Olaudah Equaino. Equiano was an Igbo villager who was enslaved …show more content…

Equiano’s first case of suffering, and the first of his claims of the unjustifiable nature and cruelty of slavery, is the pain of being torn away from one’s family and relationships. Equiano himself was kidnapped at the age of eleven along with his sister, and was extremely distraught and terrified during his abduction and forced transportation to an unfamiliar area (2). His only source of comfort was his sister, with whom he could at least embrace while they both wallowed in their tears (Equiano 2). This, however, did not last, as they were callously separated by their captors, despite their cries against it. As a result, he grieved for days and refused to eat anything, to the point where he had to be forced fed (Equiano 3). This is not a unique story either, as siblings in the slave ship Equiano was later onboard were likewise separated and sold into different lots …show more content…

Although it is difficult to discern where his boundaries lie, he was very clearly disturbed by the nonstop wailing that he heard belowdecks (Romaigne 573). The atrocities that occurred on the vessel were not unique to the Le Rodeur in any way, as can be seen when a Spanish ship hailed them attempting to get aid in the form of workhands, due to most of their crew becoming blinded by the same disease that had affected Romaigne’s crew before (576). The captain and Romaigne himself only laughed, and ignored their pleas. The sheer indifference displayed by the crew in response to the distress of others appears to be a common

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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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The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vass, was first published in 1789. However, his exert from the narrative, “An African captive describes the middle passage” puts slave trade into perspective. This writing accounts for the horrible mistreatment of Equiano and other slaves along with him during his journey across the middle passage. “I now saw myself deprived of all chance of returning to my native country” [Document Collection 23]. Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped from his homeland in Nigeria and sold to slave traders heading west.

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In this novel both of these men tell their stories and give us an insight on how their lives were living in slavery. Their narratives go into detail on how they were treated, what they saw, and what their own experiences were trying to escape. Olaudah Equiano

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Equiano experienced the worst situation when his sister and him were taken as slaves. He was separated from his sister after being captured, and he never had the chance to see her again after that. As slave he used other names such as Gustavus Vassa which was given by British and American masters. He used that name for his book called “Equiano’s Travels : The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the African” (Perkins 162). He fought to end slavery after writing his first African-American slave narrative and autobiography.

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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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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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Americans have long been fascinated with the narrative genre. The idea that an innocent could be taken from the home into a wilderness or foreign land at a moment’s notice has ‘’captured’’ American’s imagination from the time of the early colonists who loved the narratives to the modern day movie goers who thrill in movies such as Taken. Two frequently read narratives from americans past, A narrative of the captivity of Mary Rowlandson and The interesting narrative of The life of Olaudah Equiano,focus on how their life was when they were captured. While these narratives differ on many fronts,there are also plenty of commalities. Mary is beside herself with grief (66).

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This chapter addresses the central argument that African history and the lives of Africans are often dismissed. For example, the author underlines that approximately 50,000 African captives were taken to the Dutch Caribbean while 1,600,000 were sent to the French Caribbean. In addition, Painter provides excerpts from the memoirs of ex-slaves, Equiano and Ayuba in which they recount their personal experience as slaves. This is important because the author carefully presents the topic of slaves as not just numbers, but as individual people. In contrast, in my high school’s world history class, I can profoundly recall reading an excerpt from a European man in the early colonialism period which described his experience when he first encountered the African people.

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In his book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, African author Olaudah Equiano wrote about his life and experiences after being sold into the slave trade. Equiano used his writing to expose the horrors of slavery and the agony he and other slaves faced. He wrote with the hope that by exposing the horrors that slaves endure, people would realize how wicked slavery was and put an end to it. Equiano spoke about his encounters with white men in the Middle Passage and how he was terrified of them in chapter two of his book. As they examined him when he initially boarded the ship, he described how he was terrified: "I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I were sound by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me."

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The first horrible act was when Equiano was kidnapped with his sister in chapter one, when “two men and a woman” (Equiano 12) stole them away and took them to the woods. Olaudah Equiano “cried and grieved continually” (Equiano 12) when he and his sister, the only family or comfort he had left was taken away from him. To think of all the children separated from their families during the slave trade, one can only imagine the heart break and emotional wreckage this caused. Another example of the horrors of slavery was in chapter three, however this example of cruelty was more physical.

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Equiano used his experiences from slavery to crusade and advise others to abolish the trading between African people. He understood that to make a change he would have to relate to his audience on a more enhanced level. He wanted to bring an end to the separation between the races. Equiano saw the cruelty the Caucasian men would show towards the Africans at Barbados. He talked about how families would be split up eternity, bringing an addition to the already built up fear and anguish among the slaves.

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In reading, the exceedingly moving texts of Mary Rowlandson’s a Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano ’s I cannot but become on how both share their individual stories of not only being enslaved but being kidnapped and how horrific it was to experience it.

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Olaudah Equiano was one of many individuals who were taken from Africa and sold into slavery. However, he was unique in that he was eventually able to buy his own freedom, while most enslaved Africans were forced to live their entire lives in bondage. Equiano's story began when he was kidnapped while playing outside with his sister on a day when all the adults in his village were working. The kidnappers brought him and his sister far away from home and sold them into slavery, putting them to work for a family. Equiano planned to escape but was sold again before he could do so, and was subsequently moved to various countries along the coast.

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Olaudah Equiano was a writer from the American colonial period. In 1789, he wrote The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, the first autobiography written by a black in America. His intended audience was free, white men and he used descriptive accounts of past hardships to persuade readers to oppose slavery. An example of Equiano’s descriptive language is in chapter two, where he recalls, “The shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, rendered the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.” Throughout the entire book, Eluiano uses similar imagery combined with a first-person point of view to instill a feeling of sympathy and dread into his audience.

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Olaudah Equiano, and the narrative of his life that he has written is eye opening. He and his sister had their rights stripped from them, and they were separated from each other indefinitely. However, to me, it seemed more shocking to see less of the violence that I had initially thought of in relation to slavery. During the time that Olaudah spent as a slave, he was treated more as a servant. During his first servitude he turned killed a chicken, and ran away, but he was not beaten or punished.

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