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What Is Olaudah Equiano's Reaction To His Life As A Slave

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Option C: Module 3: Transatlantic Slave Trade The Transatlantic Slave Trade was a brutal system where millions of Africans were taken from their homes and sold as slaves in the Americas. It began in the 16th century, when Europeans started trading enslaved Africans to work on plantations. Slavery changed with global contact because Europeans needed more labor for their colonies and found enslaved Africans to be a cheap and accessible source of labor. Different people experienced the slave trade in different ways: Africans were captured and endured horrific conditions; Europeans profited from the trade; and enslaved Africans resisted and fought for their freedom in various ways. Ottabah Cugoano’s autobiography Ottabah was a little boy when he …show more content…

His reaction to being captured was very similar to others, as he showed a sense of defiance and resistance to the Europeans. Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography Similar to Ottabah, he was stolen from his family, but not by whites. His own black friends turned him in for money and abandoned him on a ship. As described in his biography, the ship was constantly filled with the stench and cries of men, women, and children who were starving. "I wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me." Constantly hearing screams and having to smell the awful stench of waste and dead bodies eventually got to him, as Olaudah too would rather suffer the pain of death than live a life of slavery. John Newton’s Thoughts John Newton was one of the captains who worked during the slave trade. In his remarks, he provides the layout at which the slaves were stored. Like books on a shelf," he says. His uneasiness in his writing and constant topic of death prove that he definitely held remorse for the slaves. I understand his experience was obviously much better than what the slaves had to endure, but he still noted that death and disease were also a very prominent fear for the

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I feel they should not remain on-soil once they were emancipated if they wanted to be free for good from slavery. He also believed women should be allowed to participate in the anti-slavery society. Abolitionists argued against slavery because of its harsh conditions being stuffed into the hulls of a ship like cargo. It was illegal for them to learn reading and writing. Finally, working conditions were long and hard, especially for field workers, and violence was an ever-present part of life.

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This was the corruption of the white men of that time who were afraid of the truth surfacing and everyone finding out the truth about slavery. Equiano was able to share a little detail about how slaves were treated by saying that “[he] was first transported to Barbados and then Virginia, where he was purchased by a local planter,” (512). This action shows the reader that the slaves were treated as a form of property that was sold for labor. Equiano was never given the chance to gain the same freedom as a white man, he had to work for money. He goes on to say "I was now exceedingly miserable, and thought myself worse off than any of the rest of my companions ...

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Olaudah Equiano had not yet published his narrative when Voltaire imagined, in his novel 's Chapter 19, Candide and Cacambo meeting an articulate "negro" critic of the slave labor used on European sugar plantations. Re-read this passage in Candide: How do its insights into the realities of slavery compare and contrast with what you learn about the slave trade and slave labor from Equiano 's experiences? How do Equiano 's experiences in slavery compare and contrast with his descriptions of the slaves ' lives in his father 's household, when he was a young child? How does Equiano 's lack of critical stance against the slave holding practiced by his native Igbo culture either strengthen or undermine his argument against Europeans ' use of African

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He said, "I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty, and this not only shown towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves" (Perkins 165). He expressed the pain that he felt during his slavery experience, and people may feel the pain he suffered through his writing. In addition, he writes that, “rather than give any of them to us to eat, as we expected, they threw the remaining fish into the sea again" (Perkins 166). The misery and humiliation cannot be compared with nothing. It was pure cruelty what he suffered during slavery.

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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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The harsh treatment in which he had to endure dehumanized him and his people. His life as a captive left him no choice over his aspirations, he also lacked the right to choose his ethics. Mr. Covey the unjust slave keeper denied him of his rights and stripped him of the right of sleeping like a human. “I had no bed”(Douglass **).Treated like a savage beast was what he was forced to endure.

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“The gross injustice and cruelty to which slave is the constant victim.” (Doc.4) From frederick douglass’s personal experiences and judgement, he believes that slavery is the worst thing that any country has ever let happen and that

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The trade of African slaves in the 17th century was perceived as so commonplace that a good deal of the world's population gave it little or no thought. British involvement with slavery became unavoidable at the end of the 17th century, when abolitionist literature gained public attention. The first hand account of life as a slave in Olaudah Equiano's auto-biography was like no other piece of abolitionist literature at the time. The three methods of persuasion in his writing are ethical appealing ethos, logic engaging logos, and his most effective of emotional appealing pathos. Equiano's use of pathos in his auto-biography was effective in persuading the British that slavery is wrong, because of the emotional effects, such as misery, sympathy,

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Earlier in Douglass’s life, he slowly and painfully lost his humanity to slavery. Douglass was

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Those who were labeled as slaves were sick of the mistreatment and the absence of their rights in which were diminished. For instance, Frederick Douglass, who was born into slavery lived through harsh, gruesome conditions. When Douglass was nearly whipped to death, he fought back against his owner, Mr. Covey (Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, 568). Defense, Frederick used defense to save himself from the approach of death, he resisted and fought back for a reason, he could not allow his time of death to come without fighting. Further on, once becoming a free man, Douglass proceeded in raising awareness, he used his voice, his knowledge, to awake the people on what was happening, allowing them to understand that slavery must be unlawful.

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Frederick Douglass, being a slave himself, knew the sorrows of slavery. Yet, the true cruelty of slavery was only made clear to him after he learned to read, as described in his piece, “Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave.” In

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Olaudah Equiano was one of the most famous black men in the history of slavery who was lucky enough to purchase his freedom by himself. Equiano was highly popular for his autobiography named The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African. This is an interesting autobiographywhich was published in 1789 and it emphasized various aspects of slavery throughout the entire book. In The Interesting Narrative, Olaudah Equiano uses poetic diction and tone ( sadistic) to illustrate his perspective as a slave by portraying the cruality and brutality of slavery. Equiano was very disappointed with his master’s betrayal.

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Douglass encountered multiple harsh realities of being enslaved. For example, the ex-slave was practically starved to death by his masters on multiple occasions. In fact, “[He was] allowed less than a half of a bushel of corn-meal per week, and very little else... It was not enough for [him] to subsist upon... A great many times [he had] been nearly perishing with hunger” (pg 31).

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In his letter he described his life as an indentured servant as one where he has nothing to comfort him but sickness and death. The life that he was living in colonial Virginia was one where you couldn’t escape or else you will be captured. Attempting it could of cause him to die, therefore he hoped his parents brought his escape but with his parents being poor there was no way of escaping the life of an indentured servant. Having no escape as an indentured servant, he wrote to his parents a letter asking that his parents bought out the indenture. In his letter, he wrote that he was trapped in a place filled of diseases that can make any body weak and leave you with lack of comfort and rattled with guilt.

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“What would you do if you were eight and kidnapped?” Addie Webster knows to well what she would do. Addie was only eight years old when two strangers took her from her own home. She was vanished for half her life and when she returned it was nothing like she expected. Addies life is shown threw the book Zero Day by Jan Gangsei.

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