Olaudah Equiano Analysis

In the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, written by Frederick Douglass, he tells his own personal story about what it was like to live as a slave. While living through the horrors of slavery, Douglass manages to educate himself, by teaching himself to read with the help of few. As Douglass matures, life only gets harder. However, his education brings him hope. Not only does Douglass read of abolition, giving him hope, he also learns the importance of his education. Frederick Douglass discovers that education is the key to the freedom of his people through realizing the inevitable power gap is created by ignorance.

"I believe there are few events in my life which have not happened to many; it is true the incidents of it are numerous, and, did I consider myself an European, I might say my sufferings were great; but when I compare my lot with that of most of my countrymen, I regard myself as a particular favorite of heaven, and acknowledge the mercies of Providence in every occurrence of my life." Olaudah Equiano lived the life as a slave like many black people of the 18th century. He was born free but soon was forced into slavery which took him all around the world. From his accounts he has written down, he shows his life as a slave. Equiano had been bought and sold throughout the Americas and Europe; he showed the

Douglass’s escape from slavery and eventual freedom are inseparable from his movingly narrated attainment of literacy. Douglass saw slavery as a

Equiano’s rhetorical devices which include ethos, pathos, and logos abet to define and accomplish his rhetorical purpose. His ethos, or ethical assurance, is conveyed in his level of education portrayed by his sentence structure and high diction. Furthermore, as proven in historical documents, Equiano was a slave aboard one of the many slave ships. With this, the reader can accredit Equiano’s narrative to be a reliable and first-hand source to the journey of the “Middle Passage.”

Olaudah Equiano was taken into slavery and was able to learn how to gain his freedom. He was given the education and guidance to write a narrative of his life and adventure through slavery. The education that he received from one the families he worked for became a very important tool that saved his life. Equiano was faced with many difficulties and was able to achieve his freedom. However, he was able to use his knowledge and desire to learn new things to buy his freedom from all of his owners. Equiano was very strong in his beliefs, not religion, but what he was taught by his family. The narrative was Equiano’s way of telling the people about his life and what he went through as a slave. His narrative was read by many others who wrote reviews about the manner in which he wrote his narrative. There are also commentaries from different writers. The writers were from different backgrounds many different beliefs.

For Douglass, masculinity is very much tied up in physical assertion – not unlike the white man’s desire to defend his honor through violent acts of dominance – and he cites two major occasions in his life that were pivotal to his mental (and later physical) transformation from slave to free man: gaining literacy and fighting slavebreaker Edward

In addition to Jacobs’ account, Douglass’ narrative focused on his journey through manhood and freedom – “…I wished I could be as free as they would be when they got to be men … ‘Have not I as good a right to be free as you have?’” (Douglass, Chapter VII) – as well as, “This battle with Mr. Covey was the turning-point in my career as a slave. It rekindled the few expiring embers of freedom, and revived within me a sense of my own manhood.” (Douglass, Chapter X). He had no freedom, but when he decided to fight back against the evil hand of slavery, he found it and made it his own. As a slave, he had no right to freedom, which in turn belittled his own manhood. His fight with Mr. Covey restored his sense of honor, his entitled manhood, as well as a spark of freedom he did not previously have.

Equiano’s awareness of his situation helps him find a way to buy his own freedom and become his own man. He no longer belonged to anyone else. After he managed to free himself, he worked the rest of his life in attempts to abolish slavery. The entire intention of his book was to convince people that slavery was wrong and tried to help them realize how horrible it was being treated like farm animals. However, the book also spends a large amount of emphasis on Equiano’s religion.

Olaudah Equiano 's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, is the story of the eponymous real-life character, Olaudah Equiano, his life, trials, tribulations and journey from slavery at an early age to freedom. For Equiano, it seems that slavery is almost a metaphysical phenomenon. His entire life is essentially characterized by the different experiences relating slavery, from Africa to the Middle Passage to plantation life in the West Indies and United States. Equiano’s views on slavery are tough to articulate and truly complex. Throughout the novel he makes reference to different ‘degrees of slavery,’ at times condemning the practice, and at other times contradicting

Everyone has traits that enables them to overcome adversity and prevail against all odds, whether it be strength, passion, intelligence or perseverance we all have the capability to achieve and survive the unthinkable. Olaudah Equiano possessed many of these personality traits and much more when it came down to his survival during his enslavement. Not only was he able to survive the harsh and dreadful life as a slave but he was able to achieve great accomplishments as a free black man. Even though Olaudah Equiano believed life for a free black was harder than the life of a slave he used his characteristic traits such as obedience, diligence, honesty, and his businessman mindset to help him navigate and get through such times whereas others did not or could not survive. Equiano used his positive personality traits to his advantage in some ways but most importantly he was genuine in his will to survive and become free.

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.

Slave narratives written by slaves reveal the cruel treatment slaves experienced advocating to end slavery. My favorite slave narrative and writer is Olaudah Equiano because I believe his narrative provides us with an analysis of what slaves experience and witness. Reading From The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African, Written by Himself, describes a typical slave who faces challenges while having to be separated from his family but also has an opportunity most slaves didn't have which is the ability to purchase his freedom. Equiano embodies the self of a slave who doesn't have the opportunity to make their own identity. However, he reveals his faith in God as he obtains his freedom. I will first begin with Equiano and then incorporate two other authors that support these topics.

Olaudah Equiano was one of the most famous black men in the history of slavery who was fortunate enough to purchase his own freedom. In addition, Equiano becomes extremely popular by writing his first slave narrative in 1789. In his autobiography named The interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano he emphasized various aspects of slavery throughout the entire book. In the narrative, he establishes his perspective about himself, God and Slavery. He was definably a man of motivation for all other slaves in his lifetime who continue to struggle for his freedom.In The Interesting Narrative, Olaudah Equiano utilizes poetic diction, mood, displeased tone and internal conflict in order to illustrate his perspective as a slave by emphasizing the cruelty as well as the brutality of slavery.

He is educated by his master’s wife and learns an important lesson that changes his viewpoint of slavery: slavery exists not because the masters are better than their slaves, but because they keep their slaves ignorant. This epiphany develops Douglass’ fight for freedom. The next time his master tries to whip him, he fights back, deciding that he would rather be dead than be treated like a slave, marking an important change in history. Throughout his life, Frederick Douglass was passed around to different masters, but never gave up his strive for freedom. Towards the end of the book, he successfully escapes and managed to reach New York, but even after this, he realizes that even if he is free, his journey is not over and he is to continue his struggle until slavery is abolished. He writes his narrative as an active abolitionist to teach all aspects of the future American generation to follow his steps.

The purpose of the Atlantic slave trade was hugely economic in nature. Many European and Spanish nations were enthusiastic about expansion into other parts of the world and they needed someone to work the land. It was easy to enslave a people when they were viewed as unequal or less than human. “Europeans had represented themselves as civilized and Africans uncivilized-imagery effectively used to justify colonial expansion and the slave trade” (Collins 213). The slave trade affected a great part of the world and commerce, greed, and hate was the energy behind it. The beneficiaries were slave traders, slave masters, and even governments. “Between 1500 and the end of the slave trade in the 19th century, as many as 12 million Africans may have been taken away as slaves”(Stearns 288). The slave trade would negatively affect the lives of the people of the continent of Africa and the continent itself for centuries to follow. From an economic standpoint, Stearn says, “it devastated some regions of West Africa, which lost population rapidly and found it difficult in the absence of sufficient young workers to maintain traditional economic levels” (288). Among those who were affected was a young boy named Olaudah Equiano. The principal forces against Olaudah Equiano were the ship, the sea, and the white slave trader.