Analysis of Olaudah Equiano\'s Autobiography - Grade: A PDF

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Professor: Michael Dickinson, Essay 1...

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Anna Chen HIST 361 September 16, 2020

Olaudah Equiano, son of an African tribal leader, was kidnapped and sold as a slave before later buying his freedom. Born in the year 1745 in Benin along the Niger River, among the Igbo people, Equiano lived comfortably with his father, mother, sister, and six other brothers. In 1755, Equiano and his sister were kidnapped, two men and a woman jumped the walls of their home and seized them. “...without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood.” (Equiano, Chapter 2.) The captors bound their hands and stopped their mouths until the night when they reached a cabin in the woods to rest. Two days later Equiano was separated from his sister and reached his first master as a slave. He was often changed around and had several masters, many which were kind to him during the beginning of his journey. He described one of his masters to be kind to him, they spoke the same language to him, and the wife treated him like she was his mother. After some time and an attempted escape, Equiano was sold again, and many more times until he reached the shore where he boarded a slave ship. Aboard the slave ship Equiano detailed the horrors he witnessed. In some of the first nights, he refused to eat and was punished, he was bound and flogged for refusing food, and he feared for his life. Equiano said, “...I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty.” (Equiano, Chapter 2.) Equiano also recounted details of the horrible living conditions such as the stench and suffocating air in the hold of the ship. Below the deck where all the slaves were held, the tight space stunk, the heat and climate

plus the crowded space was suffocating and intolerable. The slaves were fastened together and hardly had the space to move or turn their bodies. A sickness came from the stench and many slaves died but Equiano claimed himself lucky because he was almost always held above the hold and on the deck. Once he witnessed two countrymen decide to commit suicide and jumped off the decks. Many more followed until the sailors were alarmed and stopped the remaining from jumping overboard. They grabbed a boat and tried to save as many as they could. Two slaves drowned and the others that were saved, were given a severe flogging for “...attempting to prefer death to slavery.” (Equiano, Chapter 2.) Finally the ship was docked in Bridge Town and the slaves were led off by a merchant. A scramble then took place, the slaves were lined up in a yard and at the sound of a bell, buyers rushed in all at once to choose which slaves they wished to purchase. After some time, Equiano arrived in Virginia County and was then purchased by Michael Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in the royal navy. He was taken aboard with Pascal where he was treated more kindly and given the name “Gustavus Vassa”. Much time had passed and Equaino grew accustomed to his new way of living. Pascal was good to him, he learned English, how to read and write, and was also baptized. Equiano was later transferred to a new master, Mr. Robert King who treated him even better than Pascal. Equiano later was able to buy his freedom, with forty-seven pounds, he took it to King and they both headed to the Register Office to draw up the paperwork for his freedom. After spending some time in the West Indies working trades and being shipwrecked in the Bahama-bank, Equiano returned to England, where he decided to become an active abolitionist for slavery. He spoke of how cruel the slave owners were to their slaves, he recounted all the horrible things done to him and the others aboard the slave ships, and the actual sale and work itself. Equiano says he tried to help the cause, hoping that the government will take pity and free the rest of the slaves. He notes “Tortures, murder, and every

other imaginable barbarity and iniquity, are practised upon the poor slaves with impunity. I hope the slave trade will be abolished.” (Equiano, Chapter 12.) Olaudah Equiano’s reasoning for writing and publishing his narrative was for people to personally know and understand the hardships that slaves face. He wrote about his hopes that readers will not find him to be vain about writing his experiences or stating the fact that he has probably witnessed more things than other people have. Yet he also says that he feels he is “a particular favourite of Heaven” from being shown “the mercies of Providence in every occurrence of my life.” (Equiano, Chapter 1.) Rather than being vain, he also hopes readers are truly able to grasp the hardships he endured and to see the truth of life as a kidnapped slave. By writing this book, the author hopes that it will persuade his readers into abolishing slavery, that readers will also realize how inhumane slavery is like. Equiano talks about how upsetting African Americans are treated and how he was not not equal to a white man, and how he and others were treated like property to be bought and sold amongst people. His main purpose in writing and publishing his memoir was to shine the light a slavery and to try and persuade people’s judgement and views of slavery. In the beginning of his memoir, Equiano acknowledges his readers in a letter and says “...the chief design of which is to excite in your august assemblies a sense of compassion for the miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen. By the horrors of that trade was I first torn away from all the tender connexions that were naturally dear to my heart…” (Equiano, Preface.) He wanted to change the minds of how people viewed slavery, that African Americans should be equal and not pieces to be picked and sold. He recorded the truth and he asked readers not to think that it came from his imagination or dramaticized, but he wanted them to know what truly went down. Equiano wished to inform his audience of the

audacities that happened to him and his countrymen aboard the slave boats, what the conditions were like, and how they lived under the thumb of their masters. Equiano published his own narrative to change the minds of readers and to inform about the tragedies and hardships of slavery. By publishing his memoir, readers are able to sympathize with the author because of how he wrote about the real life events that happened to him. His narrative is not fiction, but real accounts of what took place. He hopes that his readers will at least, understand what it is like and see the wrongdoings of what slavery really is. Equiano wishes for people to join arms and do something about stopping slavery. He hopes that slaves will try to fight for their freedom, that his narrative will bring his readers inspiration and aspiration to join this cause. Equiano says “I hope to have the satisfaction of seeing the renovatio of liberty and justice resting on the British government…” (Equiano, Chapter 12.) Equiano he hoped that his autobiography would help the British government see the wrongs of slave trade and bring an end to it. With his published narrative, Equiano is able to use his story in the fight to abolish slavery in hopes that his narraitve will also be able to be used as an argument to end the slave trade. He says in the last chapter as he concludes his memoir, “I could not silently suffer government to be thus cheated, and my countrymen plundered and oppressed, and even left destitute of the necessaries for almost their existence.” (Equiano, Chapter 12.) The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, a memoir written by Olaudah Equiano himself, recounted events detailing his life as a slave and life as a free man. His memoir is a first-hand experience of what it was like to be kidnapped from his hometown in Africa, travelling abroad and experiencing the horrid life upon the slave boats, starting life in a completely different country as a slave, to the moment he bought his freedom and began his new life as a free man. His narrative promotes the abolishing of slavery in hopes

that African Americans can also overcome inequality as well. Equiano’s narrative is also important to the studies of African American history because readers are given a first-hand look into how the life of a slave was truly like. How brutally a slave was treated, from being torn from their homes, flogged for disobeying a command, and treated as less than and inferior to everyone. We are able to understand how they must have feel and empathize with their fight to end slavery. Equiano’s memoir is eye-opening, though audiences are not able to experience how what he went through, readers can feel the emotion Equiano pours out onto his memoir, “...I who had been a slave in the morning, trembling at the will of another, was become my own master, and completely free. I thought this was the happiest day I had ever experienced; and my joy was still heightened by the blessings and prayers of the sable race, particularly the aged, to whom my heart had ever been attached with reverence.” (Equiano, Chapter 12.)

Bibliography Equiano, Olaudah. “The Interesting Narrative of The Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa.” Olaudah Equiano, b. 1745. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. Vol. II., 17 Mar. 2005, docsouth.unc.edu/neh/equiano2/equiano2.html....