The primary purpose of historical narratives is to report as accurately as possible what happened at each particular place and time in history. But each of the writers in this unit (De Vaca, Bradford, and Equiano) went beyond merely reporting the facts; they had other, more personal reasons for writing what they did. Each of them had a personal agenda. Equiano’s personal agenda in The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was to shame his white audience into abolishing the slave trade by describing the horrible events that took place on the ship. While he did state facts about the ship, Equiano described personal experiences to persuade the audience more. For example, Equiano describes the smell of the hold as being “…so intolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to …show more content…
In the beginning of his excerpt, De Vaca says "When night fell, only the navigator and I remained able to tend the barge. Two hours after dark he told me I must take over; he believed he was going to die that night." (Page 70, line 7) Later in that paragraph, De Vaca claims "In that hour I would have welcomed death rather than see so many around me in such a condition." (Page 70, line 11) On multiple occasions, De Vaca says that he individually orders men to do tasks, which convientley ends up being beneficial for the group. For example, on page 72, De Vaca says "After we ate, I ordered Lope de Oviedo, our strongest man, to climb one of the trees not far off and ascertain the lay of the land. . ." (line 26) "I sent him back for a closer look. . . but warned him not to risk going too far out." (line 31) Both of these example lead up to the group of men meeting the Indians, which increases their survival. Although his narrative is true, Cabeza de Vaca attempted to twist the facts to make himself look and feel better to the King of