Equiano Middle Passage Analysis

Equiano wrote to help show society the evils that lie in slavery. He used writing, to tell the truth of conditions of life for slaves, making readers feel every word he used through their senses: “The stench of the hold, while we were on the coast, was so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for anytime” (Equiano 364). While they both wrote with different purposes in mind, Rowlandson and Equiano managed to paint a picture so vivid that it invoked emotions that edified society.

The utilization of detail creates a vivid image of the horrific scenes the slaves experienced during being transported to england.For instance, one time on deck he says, ‘One white man in the particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast” (86). Equiano employs detail in order to establish the responses to the beating of the man. Watching the horrific scenes questioned if Equiano would he be next. To illustrate the astonishment of Equiano while on deck he says “While we stayed on the coast I was mostly on deck, and one day, to my great astonishment, I saw one of these vessels coming in with the sails up”(86). These particular details are chosen specifically because Equiano’s

Equiano's Travels reveals a European mind state far removed from philosophe theory. From the outset of his narrative, Equiano's description of his short-lived childhood is filled with cultural detail giving insight into the life of his people. His words also convey his naivety, as Equiano claims to have at one time never even heard of Europeans. When he recounts the day he and his sister were kidnapped from their own yard by greedy countrymen, the reader gets a sense of the inhumanity that exists even in the earliest stages of slavery. Being torn from his sister is a similarly gut-wrenching detail that plagues the reader with a sense of guilt that refuses to leave even after the excerpt has ended. The narration between that takes the reader from the shore of Equiano's homeland to the interior of the putrid-smelling slave ship and across a seemingly endless ocean drives the point of slavery's evils home. The conditions of such enslavement stand in direct violation of the philosophe's theory of human freedom. While their beliefs deny authority, Equiano's account tells the story of a place where these laws are permanently suspended, and man is made beast before his master.

I never thought being a slave was as much as this. I knew they suffered, but not as much as them preferring death over being alive. I can picture the situation as a horror scene as many slaves shrieked, groaned, and cried as they died of diseases or maybe of hopelessness. After I read this article, I’ve been interested in other stories about slave ship. The fact that Equiano bought his own freedom makes me realize that slaves having a position in liberty was not easy or given to anybody easily. It came to the moment in their lives where they lost hope in being happy which at some point in their lives, life was not taken seriously. Like Equiano, many slaves did not fight back or tried to escape. There was no point in fighting for their lives. Either way, they would have to die and suffer. I believe that most of the slaves’ reason for their death was the loss of hope they had for their lives. This is a good article to get readers attention and open their eyes to be thankful for what they have which is freedom, food, and a family. None of the slaves could enjoy what we have. They spent most of their lives working and serving others than being close to their families. Overall, “The Horrors of a Slave Ship” have impacted readers and also me in a way that we can see more than just a daily workforce. I know there are millions of other slaves than just Olaudah Equiano. To

Equiano was able to utilize his life experiences and expose the true story behind a slaves journey (from the capturing to the day the slave is placed with an owner), which allowed him to be an influential opponent against the enslavement of Africans. Equiano stated that, “[t]ourtures, murder, and every other imaginable barbarity and iniquity are practiced

In this, however, it depicts the complex journey of the African slaves that struggled to become equal. In addition, Equiano’s use of imagery clearly depicts the journey of the Africans slaves, such as “The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us" (45). Through the portrayal of this vivid imagery, the reader can feel the distress of the slaves in which they encountered the journey of the “Middle Passage.” He emphasizes his emotions, ideals, and thoughts through the imagery. With the uses of this vivid imagery along with high diction and intricate sentences, Equiano successfully attempts to inform the reader of the horrid journey of slave transportation. However, it is not only his unique style alone that fulfils his rhetorical purpose of depicting the appalling slave experience; in addition, his several rhetorical devices aid to do so.

Another individual, Olaudah Equiano, was captured in Nigeria. He was taken by ship across the Middle Passage. Once he was put aboard the ship, the crew roughed him up some in order to test his fortitude. Having looked around his situation, he noticed the other slaves were very dejected. He passed out and awoke with members of the party that had sold him around him. He was afraid he was being sold to be eaten, but was assured he was not. He was led to the lower decks of the ship. The stench and disgust of the area were more than he could take. Olaudah became depressed and fell very sick. He often wished that death would come and take him. Once the cargo ship was fully loaded, the space was exceedingly limited. He was beaten for not eating and whipped hourly. After finding some of his own nation, he was told that they were being taken to a white man’s country to work. This was some relief to him. He soon became so weak that he was brought to the deck and allowed to stay there. This was a minor relief as he had to witness those that were brought form below at near death. During a period of calm seas, several slaves successfully jumped ship. The crew was quick to react and made all slaves go below deck. After stopping the ship setting about a

One of the most interesting arguments that modern apologists makes for the practice of race-based slavery in the Americas is the fact that slavery existed in Africa during that time period and that Africans were complicit in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade. What is fascinating about Olaudah Equiano's discussion of the Middle Passage is that, as a man who had been enslaved in Africa prior to being shipped as a slave to the Americas, he was in a unique position to describe slavery in Africa with his introduction to European-influenced slavery in North America. His perception was that the immense brutality of the Middle Passage foreshadowed the dehumanization of slaves in the Americas, which was more inhumane than the treatment he had received as a slave while in Africa. Furthermore, he did not suggest that this brutality was linked to the race of the traders, though that seemed to have been his initial impression, but to the nature of the Trans-Atlantic trade. Therefore, Equiano's writings suggest that shipping Africans across the ocean for slavery was part of the dehumanizing process that helped fuel the practice of slavery in America.

Olaudah Equiano, the author of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was captured in Africa and sold into slavery. Later in life, he purchased his freedom and wrote his autobiography in 1789. Equiano experienced hardships beyond imaging in his years as a slave and oftentimes witnessed extensive cruelty by whites towards Africans. Equiano 's experience of the Atlantic slave trade and middle passage as we understand it today was typical of a regular captive. The Atlantic slave trade, more specifically the experience that Equiano had was horrific. The Atlantic slave trade stands as one of the greatest mistreatments towards other humans to have ever happened, for nearly 400 years this occurred. Equiano 's experience however

Throughout the book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Equiano tries to say that he is just an ordinary person, but this cannot be the case. He survives several ship wrecks, learns to read and write, and is able to buy his freedom. This is far from ordinary and borderlines with extraordinary. As he describes his adventures he starts by telling you a depressing story of how his sister got separated from him. This sets up the reader to know that there is plenty more tragedy to come. This is when he gets thrown into a life of slavery. From there he tries to wiggle his way out from the life of a slave and to create his own. Equiano uses anecdotes that he has experienced to prove to his readers that slavery is cruel and unforgiving, such as the time when he was being transported, to the treatment under his masters, and finally even when he was a free man.

In the first half of the book, Blassingame did a fantastic job of explaining the conditions of African slaves coming to the American south, and being exposed to Western culture for the first time. The exposure to Western culture by Africans was something that was not focused on as much by other historians. One crucial example the author used was that of one African slave known as Olaudah Equiano, who was sent to a plantation in Virginia. Based on his own accounts,

The killings made by the slaves are saddening, too. Mutilating the whites and leaving their bodies lying is inhumane. It is such a shocking story. This book was meant to teach the reader on the inhumanity of slavery. It also gives us the image of what happened during the past years when slavery was practised.

The Middle Passage was a triangular route that was frequently used by many European nations who engaged in the Atlantic slave trade of millions of Africans. One such African slave was a man by the name of Olaudah Equiano, who 's autobiography spoke of the mortality rate on slave ships, what he and his fellow slaves thought of their European captors, and what their captors thought of them.

“The Book of Negroes is a master piece, daring and impressive in its geographic, historical and human reach, convincing in its narrative art and detail, necessary for imagining the real beyond the traces left by history.” I completely agree with The Globe and Mail’s interpretation of this story. One could almost see the desolate conditions of the slave boats and feel the pain of every person brought into slavery. Lawrence Hill created a compelling story that depicts the hard ships, emotional turmoil and bravery when he wrote The Book of Negroes.

Equiano’s luck soon shifted when he was once again kidnapped and sold as a slave, this time he would have to endure the notoriously dreadful journey across the sea to America. Knowing that this was a pivotal point in his life and that he would become a gudgeon to the harshness of slavery, Equiano attempted to prepare himself for what lay ahead. However, the sight of the inhumane acts he witnessed on the African coast, while being transported, were new to Equiano and instilled fear into his consciousness.