...The effects of transatlantic travel inevitably lead to a sense of homelessness. In Crèvecœur’s Letters from an American Farmer, and Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, the writing revolves around characters who essentially do not have homes, both dealing with transatlantic settings. Equiano is consistently stripped of his home, starting in Africa, and is perpetually forced to adapt in new environments. Crèvecœur’s narrative depicts a new American settler, James, who comes from England, and is in the liminal state of homelessness, from settling into his new land to eventually fleeing his estate. The piece that displays homelessness a lot more overtly is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, where Equiano immediately gets taken from his home, igniting his life of disarray. In order to convey this theme of homelessness, it is important to outline the various instances leading up to it: “...two men and a woman got over our walls, and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the nearest wood” (The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, p.47). It is in this moment that Equiano will henceforth struggle to maintain some semblance...
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...William Bradford and Olaudah Equiano write about their ideas and terrors to white settlers and new generations on their way to America. In “The Interesting Narrative about the Life of Olaudah Equiano” Olaudah Equiano did not have a choice but to come to America but in “Of Plymouth Plantation” William Bradford leaves America in search of new laws and ways of living. Olaudah Equiano somehow found a way to write down his descriptions about what happened and what he saw. At 11 years old, Equiano was kidnapped from his home. Being separated from his family you would think he would have been terrified. In The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano, instead of being negative he explains the things he saw for the very first time in his life “I first saw flying fishes, which surprised me very much..” Equiano’s new journey was “heightened” he saw the land of the Barbados and the clouds looked like land to him as they sailed. (Equiano 174) Once arriving in America Equiano “We were conducted immediately to the merchant's yard..” (Equiano 175) had to begin working....
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...Olaudah Equiano was enslaved during the historic Atlantic Slave Trade, in the late 1700’s and into the 1800’s. Though nobody could argue that slavery was “good” or even “humane,” Equiano did have the fortune of learning skills most other slaves didn’t while serving his master. Equiano learned the skills of writing and arithmetic, among others, and was able to buy his freedom after laboring for years. After he earned his freedom, Equiano became an abolitionist speaker and writer, striving to rid the world of slavery. He wrote an autobiography entitled The Life of Olaudah Equiano, which was first published in 1789, but revised and released yet again in 1814. Assumably, words were very important to Equiano and chosen with care. The excerpt...
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...The Africans had prior knowledge in the agricultural methods of both of these crops and were beneficial to the Europeans who were just starting the agricultural process in America. Olaudah Equiano, a former slave born in Africa, tells of his own experience of being kidnapped as a young boy and how the slaves were treated more like animals than human beings in his autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. After being sold multiple times to various African families, Olaudah was then taken to the coast and loaded on a slave ship bound for the white people’s country. Once on the slave ship, the Africans were chained together on deck or taken down to the holds below where they were kept in unsanitary conditions, with little food or water (Equiano, 20-22). Numerous Africans would rather have died than to be sold and enslaved to the white Europeans. For instance, “we had about 12 negroes did willfully drown themselves, and other starv’d themselves to death; for ‘tis their belief that when they die they return home to their own country and friends again” (Phillips, 1). Slaves were regarded as an inferior race, property at the disposal of their masters and...
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...Equiano is somewhat specific in making slavery injustice aware. He explain the way it was and they way the white people treated the black men while being on the slave ship. "When he looked round the ship too and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together" (paragraph 2). 'Every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow" (paragraph 2). Each passage reflects Equiano's purpose for writing by him explaining with detail what had happen on the slave ship and what they did to him. His style of writing and what he is trying to accomplish is to make his audience and persuasive his audience that he and other people got treated badly. Equiano also express that his belief...
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...Olaudah Equiano was a man that went through hell and back. Throughout his life time he experienced slavery, pain, and loneliness. Equiano wrote of this amazing and detailed journey and shared the things he saw and experienced throughout his life. In this essay I will be talking about his journey in two ways. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he explains his detailed experience and in his biography it explains less details about Equiano but it goes into detail when it comes to location, facts, and slave work force. In my essay I will compare and contrast the differences and similarities between the interesting narrative of Olaudah Equiano and his biography. I will prove that Equiano interesting narrative is true based off the comparison of his biography....
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...Olaudah Equiano was taken by force at the age of eleven from his West African village of Benin. He was then put on a ship to travel through the rough “Middle Passage” of the Atlantic Ocean to become a slave in the West Indies. In the West Indies (Barbados) he was put up for sale to work in the sugar plantations. Then in 1766, he was sold to a Virginian farmer to be a slave there. He was a slave in North America for ten years, and then he was allowed to buy his freedom. He left North American and went to Great Britain. In Great Britain he worked as a barber and became an abolish nest. He spoke out against slavery and in 1789 wrote a book about his life called “The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African”,...
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...In The Book of Negroes by Lawrence Hill, although Aminata suffered greatly throughout her journey from Africa to America due to being deprived of food, water and clothing, her willingness to help the medicine man translate instructions to the Fulbe captives certainly alleviated her living conditions. From the very beginning of the journey, all the captives, including Aminata were bound and “locked inside a pen, spending the whole night standing on sandy soil that stank of urine and feces” (Hill 75). As depicted, these captives were confined in their little compartment, surrounded by filth and inhumanely treated. However, as soon as Aminata began to help the medicine man, she is given a “calabash of water and a coconut shell held with boiled...
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...Olaudah Equiano show his deep-rooted hypocrisy in many ways especially in this exchange of the slaves in St. Eustatius. “ I submitted without repining, and we went to St. Eustatius. After we had discharged our cargo there we took in a live cargo, as we call a cargo of slaves (Davis et al. Chapter 7).” Equiano's tone shows a sudden levelness and a striking absence of sympathy for the situation of the slave – a dilemma that we have come to respect through his own self-clarified involvement as unparalleled in pity and setback. In this very specific scene Equiano refers to his slaves– whose torment should impact him – as a property. A way a former slave like Equiano could really recuperate following quite a while of the mental and physical manhandle...
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...Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano and “On Being Brought from Africa to America” by Phillis Wheatley. While these works deal with the same topic of slavery, they differ in genre and time period. Equiano wrote a narrative in the Early American Fiction time period while Wheatley wrote a poem during the Revolutionary period. They both tell the tale of slave in first person perspective, but they tell two different stories. Equiano’s narrative was written in the 1750s at the end of the Early American Fiction period of American Literature. The religious theme that was common during this...
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...Olaudah Equiano, was a former enslaved African, seaman and merchant who wrote an autobiography depicting the horrors of slavery and lobbied Parliament for its abolition. In his biography, he records he was born in what is now Nigeria, kidnapped and sold into slavery as a child. He then endured the middle passage on a slave ship bound for the New World. After a short period of time in Barbados, Equiano was shipped to Virginia and put to work weeding grass and gathering stones. In 1757, he was bought by a naval captain (Captain Pascal) for about £40, who named him Gustavas Vassa. Equiano was about 12 when he first arrived in England. For part of that time he stayed at Blackheath in London with the Guerin family (relatives of Pascal). It...
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...began to write his first autobiography about Ibo religion. Equiano elaborates on how Christianity connected with the African descent and its culture, also he described the similarities between the Jews and the African from circumcision to offerings, from purifications to washings, and from believing in one Creator to live after death. The African American family was cherished within the African American community due to their history of slavery, the family had bonded in a strong culture. These origins have these families tested family bonds throughout African American history, changing the family makeup by causing these families to become more Americanized and less Africanized following slavery abolishment. Family reunions and events are highly cherished to help maintain the African American culture. Elderly of African American families are celebrated, as they are passing on the African American legacy in this country. The elders provided great perception and common sense into the family and cultural history, also giving good guidance to the younger member into their families. The popularity of family reunions has grown over the past several years. After the civil rights movement, several aspects of the society started to become approachable to African American and...
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...Life of the Olaudah Equiano and Pontiac Speeches In the speech by Equiano, he talked about the auction slave trade. At the auction he describes how the slaves are only together for a short period of time until it is time to be bought. Once the auction begins the buyers will come and bid on slaves they want. Equiano then describes how the slaves feel when families are divided and friendships torn apart because the slaves are sold to different people. The aspect of slavery that Equiano emphasizes on is how families can be taken away from one another. I believe he addresses this point mainly because he has experienced this kind of situation before. He knows how it feels to struggle without the love one near. In the speech by Pontiac, he talks...
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...In the essay prompt, number five explains, “How history is not just shaped by events that unfold, but also by people and how people can shape history through their actions through the recording of an event or by leading a revolution.” In my essay the person who will be the topic is “Olaudah Equiano”. I am to choose an individual and discuss their impact on world history. Olaudah Equiano, who was born 1745 in West Africa, contributed to a ton of accomplishments. He was an abolitionist and former slave who was the author of “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”; Written by Himself. Equiano’s Narrative told the story of his capture and life in bondage. At 11 years old, while caring for the family compound, he was kidnaped along with his sister. The two were taken away from the place where they grew up, and sold to the neighborhood slave traders. Following a concise time of remains in Africa, in 1755 Equiano was captured and sold to the European slave brokers, who then transported him over the Atlantic to Barbados in the West Independents in 1756. In Virginia, Equiano was bought by Michael Pascal, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Pascal gave Equiano the name of Gustavus Vassa, which stayed with him for the better part of his lifetime. Domestic slaves in...
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...Feb.02, 2001 Olaudah Equiano In 1745, Olaudah Equiano was born in a small village in Isseke,Nigeria. His father was one of the chiefs in the village. At age eleven Equiano and his sister were kidnapped by two men and a woman never to see his home or parents again. After being kidnapped he was hiked across part of Africa untill he arrived at the coast where he was loaded onto a slave ship. While crossing the Atlantic to Barbados onboard the slave ship he and his countrymen were subject to horrors you could hardly imagine. Equiano tells about the horrors and torture slaves face not only on the slave ship but also on plantations and many other aspects of a slave's life. Equiano experienced almost all parts of a slave's existence. He was a slave throughout Africa, England, and the New World. Equiano is bought and sold several times. Religion also played a huge role in Equiano's life and I think that it helped him get through some really hard times. He is bought by a British Naval officer and serves in the British Navy during the Seven Years' War. He is then sold to Robert King where he begins trading goods between islands and eventually makes enough money to buy his freedom. Equiano tells of the joy he feels when he becomes a free man. The rest of his life is devoted to helping slaves and to the cause of abolishing slavery. In 1756 Olaudah Equino was kidnapped and taken to a slave ship which is when his nightmare and battle with slavery began. Equiano and his countrymen were chained...
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