...Olaudah Equiano was enslaved during the historic Atlantic Slave Trade, in the late 1700’s and into the 1800’s. Though nobody could argue that slavery was “good” or even “humane,” Equiano did have the fortune of learning skills most other slaves didn’t while serving his master. Equiano learned the skills of writing and arithmetic, among others, and was able to buy his freedom after laboring for years. After he earned his freedom, Equiano became an abolitionist speaker and writer, striving to rid the world of slavery. He wrote an autobiography entitled The Life of Olaudah Equiano, which was first published in 1789, but revised and released yet again in 1814. Assumably, words were very important to Equiano and chosen with care. The excerpt...
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...Olaudah Equiano is ex-African slave who wrote his own autobiography “The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano” in his autobiography, he says that he was born in the country of what is now Nigeria. Equiano was kidnapped and sold into slavery when he was just a child. During this time, he went through what was known as the middle passage on a slave ship bound for the New World. Equiano was then shipped to Virginia to work weeding grass and gathering stones after a short time working in Barbados. Equiano was eventually bought by a naval captain for about £40 named Gustavas Vassa. Equiano was 12 when the captain brought him to England, and While he was there he stayed at Blackheath located in London with the Guerin family who was relatives to the naval captain. While he was there...
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...Equiano is somewhat specific in making slavery injustice aware. He explain the way it was and they way the white people treated the black men while being on the slave ship. "When he looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together" (paragraph 2). 'Every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow" (paragraph 2). Each passage reflects Equiano's purpose for writing by him explaining with detail what had happen on the slave ship and what they did to him. His style of writing and what he is trying to accomplish is to make his audience and persuasive his audience that he and other people got treated badly. Equiano also express that his belief...
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...Olaudah Equiano, was a former enslaved African, seaman and merchant who wrote an autobiography depicting the horrors of slavery and lobbied Parliament for its abolition. In his biography, he records he was born in what is now Nigeria, kidnapped and sold into slavery as a child. He then endured the middle passage on a slave ship bound for the New World. After a short period of time in Barbados, Equiano was shipped to Virginia and put to work weeding grass and gathering stones. In 1757, he was bought by a naval captain (Captain Pascal) for about £40, who named him Gustavas Vassa. Equiano was about 12 when he first arrived in England. For part of that time he stayed at Blackheath in London with the Guerin family (relatives of Pascal). It...
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...began to write his first autobiography about Ibo religion. Equiano elaborates on how Christianity connected with the African descent and its culture, also he described the similarities between the Jews and the African from circumcision to offerings, from purifications to washings, and from believing in one Creator to live after death. The African American family was cherished within the African American community due to their history of slavery, the family had bonded in a strong culture. These origins have these families tested family bonds throughout African American history, changing the family makeup by causing these families to become more Americanized and less Africanized following slavery abolishment. Family reunions and events are highly cherished to help maintain the African American culture. Elderly of African American families are celebrated, as they are passing on the African American legacy in this country. The elders provided great perception and common sense into the family and cultural history, also giving good guidance to the younger member into their families. The popularity of family reunions has grown over the past several years. After the civil rights movement, several aspects of the society started to become approachable to African American and...
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...Life of the Olaudah Equiano and Pontiac Speeches In the speech by Equiano, he talked about the auction slave trade. At the auction he describes how the slaves are only together for a short period of time until it is time to be bought. Once the auction begins the buyers will come and bid on slaves they want. Equiano then describes how the slaves feel when families are divided and friendships torn apart because the slaves are sold to different people. The aspect of slavery that Equiano emphasizes on is how families can be taken away from one another. I believe he addresses this point mainly because he has experienced this kind of situation before. He knows how it feels to struggle without the love one near. In the speech by Pontiac, he talks...
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...Olaudah Equiano was taken by force at the age of eleven from his West African village of Benin. He was then put on a ship to travel through the rough “Middle Passage” of the Atlantic Ocean to become a slave in the West Indies. In the West Indies (Barbados) he was put up for sale to work in the sugar plantations. Then in 1766, he was sold to a Virginian farmer to be a slave there. He was a slave in North America for ten years, and then he was allowed to buy his freedom. He left North American and went to Great Britain. In Great Britain he worked as a barber and became an abolish nest. He spoke out against slavery and in 1789 wrote a book about his life called “The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African”,...
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...In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, although Aminata suffered greatly throughout her journey from Africa to America due to being deprived of food, water and clothing, her willingness to help the medicine man translate instructions to the Fulbe captives certainly alleviated her living conditions. From the very beginning of the journey, all the captives, including Aminata were bound and “locked inside a pen, spending the whole night standing on sandy soil that stank of urine and feces” (Hill 75). As depicted, these captives were confined in their little compartment, surrounded by filth and inhumanely treated. However, as soon as Aminata began to help the medicine man, she is given a “calabash of water and a coconut shell held with boiled...
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...Olaudah Equiano show his deep-rooted hypocrisy in many ways especially in this exchange of the slaves in St. Eustatius. “ I submitted without repining, and we went to St. Eustatius. After we had discharged our cargo there we took in a live cargo, as we call a cargo of slaves (Davis et al. Chapter 7).” Equiano's tone shows a sudden levelness and a striking absence of sympathy for the situation of the slave – a dilemma that we have come to respect through his own self-clarified involvement as unparalleled in pity and setback. In this very specific scene Equiano refers to his slaves– whose torment should impact him – as a property. A way a former slave like Equiano could really recuperate following quite a while of the mental and physical manhandle...
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...Feb.02, 2001 Olaudah Equiano In 1745, Olaudah Equiano was born in a small village in Isseke,Nigeria. His father was one of the chiefs in the village. At age eleven Equiano and his sister were kidnapped by two men and a woman never to see his home or parents again. After being kidnapped he was hiked across part of Africa untill he arrived at the coast where he was loaded onto a slave ship. While crossing the Atlantic to Barbados onboard the slave ship he and his countrymen were subject to horrors you could hardly imagine. Equiano tells about the horrors and torture slaves face not only on the slave ship but also on plantations and many other aspects of a slave's life. Equiano experienced almost all parts of a slave's existence. He was a slave throughout Africa, England, and the New World. Equiano is bought and sold several times. Religion also played a huge role in Equiano's life and I think that it helped him get through some really hard times. He is bought by a British Naval officer and serves in the British Navy during the Seven Years' War. He is then sold to Robert King where he begins trading goods between islands and eventually makes enough money to buy his freedom. Equiano tells of the joy he feels when he becomes a free man. The rest of his life is devoted to helping slaves and to the cause of abolishing slavery. In 1756 Olaudah Equino was kidnapped and taken to a slave ship which is when his nightmare and battle with slavery began. Equiano and his countrymen were chained...
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...comfortable. What happens though, when nothing is familiar? When nothing is comfortable? It is in this situation that Olaudah Equiano found himself. In European eyes he was a domesticated animal that simply acted well trained, and just like an animal after Equiano has been “domesticated” he would never be welcomed back by his people as one of them. Each group may have tolerated him, but he never again belong to either one of them. In the beginning Equiano was simply average. A normal child in his nation, not worth paying any extra attention to. He started growing up as every male in his village did, learning the same skills and the same beliefs. It is common knowledge that people are most impressionable at a young age. In addition to all of that, generally the most influential people in a child’s life are their parents. Think of how many times you have heard a kid said, “I want to be just like my dad when I grow up.” So should not this be the society that Equiano identifies himself most closely with? It almost seems laughable to think that any African (free or enslaved) could see himself part of European society during the slave trade. Yet there are many arguments that can be made to show that Equiano actually did believe himself to be a sort of “adopted European”. One such justification that is often brought up is religion. After living with Europeans Equiano is converted from whatever his people believed in to Christianity. It is difficult for many people in present...
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...Captivity had been around since the beginning of time. Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano wrote their experiences with captivity, with different messages in mind. They dealt with fear and terror while being subjected to the evils of captivity. Although they did deal with fear, they learned from their experiences. Both Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano suffered from the horrors of kidnapping; Mary Rowlandson was captured by Native Americans in 1864, while Olaudah Equiano was captured by African slave traders and later sold to white slave traders. Through life before, during, and after captivity, Mary Rowlandson and Olaudah Equiano can be compared and contrasted. Mary Rowlandson was a young mother of three living on the frontier under the constant threat of a Native American attack. “In February 1676, she [Mary] and her three children were carried away by a Wampanoag raiding party that wanted to trade hostages for money” (Rowlandson 35). The colony Mary lived in was surrounded by Native Americans. The attackers burned down houses and opened fire on the settlers, wounding and killing several of them, and taking a number of the survivors as captives. The Native Americans begin to lead their captives, including Rowlandson and her three children, from the settlement into the surrounding wilderness. Olaudah Equiano was a member of the Ibo people, born in a part of West Africa that is now Nigeria. Olaudah was the youngest of the sons and became his mother’s favorite. His mother...
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...We had a discussion question comparing the experience of Olaudah Equiano to Phillis Wheatley. Although they had significant differences within their own lives of being a slave. I view a slave as a slave and absolutely see no differences in being held against your own will, forced to carry out acts you were uncomfortable with and worked until you basically died. Once Equiano was captured he once stated "I now wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me."(pg 164) Although Phillis Wheatley was treated better than Equiano I felt like they glorified being a slave. They states that "she, in sixteen Months Time from her arrival, attained the English language, to which she was an utter stranger before, to such a degree, as to read any" In my opinion this still does not take away the fact that she was a slave. Therefore, I had a tough time comparing which slave had it better. I personally enjoyed the rest of the readings that we had thus far, and I did not want to just pick a third irrationally to make number...
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...Bibliography: Olaudah Equiano
Imbarrato, Susan Clair. "Equiano, Olaudah." Infobase Learning - Login. New York: Facts On File, Inc., 2008. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.
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...Olaudah Equiano Olaudah Equiano was born in the Eboe province in Africa, which is in southern Nigeria today, in 1745. He was the son of an African chief. At the age of 11, he and his sister were captured by slavers and put on a ship to experience the horrors of the Middle Passage. He was served under various masters until, with enough money, purchased his freedom in 1766. During a visit to London, he became involved with an abolitionist movement. He petitioned to the Queen in 1788 and even wrote an autobiography called: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. 10 years after his death, slavery was abolished in Great Britain. Although Equiano did not live to see these events, his actions as an abolitionist played an important part in bringing them about. In the mid to late 18th century, Olaudah Equiano was an outstanding example of courage and perseverance through his experiences as a slave, his societal class, and his religion. Equiano was captured at an early age in his homeland and shipped across the Atlantic to Barbados and then Virginia. He was then quickly purchased by a Royal Navy officer, Lieutenant Michael Pascal, who renamed him 'Gustavus Vassa' after the 16th-century Swedish king. Equiano wished, as any slave of that day, to be freed. Unfortunately, Pascal learning of Equiano's desire, and cruelly sold him...
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