Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa Essay

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

At the end of the excerpt from Equiano's Travels, the then-freed Negro and outspoken abolitionist summarizes his conclusions from what he has gained as a subject to both the experience of slavery and the Enlightenment in Europe. Equiano does this through a series of questions

Equiano felt the Christian God’s omnipresent power in times of oppression and in times of success. Thus, his narrative is akin to the typical Christian journey of finding salvation through trials and tribulations. He began his journey in slavery, blind to the existence of God. His eyes were opened when he gained knowledge of Christianity and read the scriptures. Equiano was led by God through the horrors of the slave trade and into the light of

"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

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

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.”

Initially, Equiano had a tremendous amount of worry related to the appearance of the slave traders and that initial discomfort was based upon racial differences. "Their complexions too differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, (which was very different from any I had ever

Through the eyes of the white plantation owner in the eighteenth century, Equiano is less than credible. During the late eighteenth century, Europeans viewed the world through eurocentric eyes; this caused them to view all Africans as heathens despite their intricate and complex societies. Equiano was born in Africa; because of this, his credibility was greatly diminished. His reputation sunk further the minute he was taken aboard a slave ship. Although he is clearly capable of critical thinking and has mastered the written word, Equiano needed to prove himself more than a white writer would.

Another detail that Equiano incorporated within his writing, is the meaning of his name. As he says in the text “I was named Olaudah, which, in our language, signifies vicissitude or fortune also, one favoured, and having a loud voice and well spoken” (Gates Jr. & Smith 121). Equiano was a man who was the youngest born son to village leaders who owned slaves, became a captive of slavery himself, briefly worked in the fields as a slave before following his master overseas and ultimately buying his own freedom. What’s most profound throughout that, is the fact that he used his voice to help others who are stuck where he was able to break free. PBS has an article where

At his time Captain James Doran, captain of the Charming Sally was the new owner of Equiano. Equiano new master was very cruel and unsympathetic to Equiano. Doran also starts to get the sense that Equiano is getting over smart speaking “English” and such and feels he his better off being sold. From the text The Norton Anthology of American Literature by Martin Puchner I have read in the narrative of Olaudah Equiano which mentions Equiano’s argument with Captain Doran that Pascal "could not sell me to him, nor to anyone else…I have served him…many years, and he has taken all my wages and prize-money…I have been baptized; and by the laws of the land no man has a right to sell me" (p. 176-177). Equiano was hurt due to realization that he was very faithful towards Captain Doran and thought he will get his freedom but then is sold to king Robert.

In Herman Melville’s mysterious novella, “Benito Cereno”, Captain Amasa Delano observes, what appears to be, a distressed Spanish slave ship navigating into the harbor of St. Maria. Disregarding the opposition from his crew, Captain Delano leaves his ship, Bachelor's Delight, and approaches the foreign vessel, San Dominick, via a whaleboat. In addition to offering water and provisions to the vessel in distress, Captain Delano encounters—who appears to be in command of the vessel—Don Benito Cereno, and his “faithful” negro servant Babo. Throughout the novella, Captain Delano witnesses many suspicious behaviors from Benito Cereno, Babo, and the other slaves on board. Although Captain Delano has mixed feelings about Benito Cereno, in which he often views him as a “paper captain” who has “little of command but the name”, Captain Delano fails to latch onto his intuition of who is truly in command of the ship until it’s almost too late.

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.

The story of Equiano was a very interesting look into the life of a slave. This narrative was particularly interesting because he told his story all the way from the beginning. The reader gets to follow his journey from when he was a small boy who is kidnapped all the way up to adulthood. I don’t think anyone can really imagine what his life must have been like during these events. He does paint a picture of the harshness and how scary many things he encountered were for him. Being a young child with no one to turn to thrust into the world of a rough and harrowing sea voyage is horrible, but add the cruelty and the inhuman conditions that the slaves were faced with and the narrative becomes a down right atrocity. It is amazing to me that

While living with his master, working on slave ships, and working on a plantation, Equiano had seen many practices of slavery in America. The way Americans treated their slaves was very different than the way Africans treated their slaves. For those who survived the slave ship, they were separated and