...ANALYSIS OF THOMAS CLARSKON’S AND OLAUDAH EQUIANO’S ABOLISHMENT WORKS “The real names of our people were destroyed during slavery. The last name of my forefathers was taken from them when they were brought to America and made slaves, and then the name of the slave master was given, which we refuse, we reject that name today and refuse it. I never acknowledge it whatsoever.”- Malcolm X. Slavery is one of the biggest wounds that have never fully healed and thanks to some very brave and important people, slavery has been abolished and it was because people like both Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano were abolitionist writers, Thomas Clarkson was able to bring the truth of slavery to the forefront of people minds as he was working hard to help abolish slavery, Olaudah wrote a biography about himself and it details what happened to him as a slave and how he was able to change his life after he bought his freedom; Thomas Clarkson was able to write his essay and be able to prove his findings because he traveled 35,000 miles interviewing both the slave owners and the slaves. Slavery will never be banished from our hearts and souls because it left such a jagged scar, but some of the people who were brave enough to face the injustice helped soften the blow. Thomas Clarkson and Olaudah Equiano were both abolitionist writers, Clarkson with his essay and Equiano with his biography. Thomas Clarkson wrote an essay titled “Essay on Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species.” In his essay...
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...America became a symbol of “a better life” for Puritan Pilgrims when they were faced with religious persecution in their European homeland in the mid-1600s. These people took a step into the unknown by leaving behind all that they were familiar with and traveling to America in search of the right to exercise their beliefs. They faced many obstacles on their journey, as described in Of Plymouth Plantation by William Bradford, one of the original Puritan Pilgrims: “In sundry of these storms the winds were so fierce, and the seas so high, as they could not bear a knot of sail, but were forced to hull, for diverse day later” (Bradford 59). In addition to inclimate weather, the Pilgrims were plagued by many diseases and poverty to such a severity that they were lucky to survive the trip itself. When they arrived on land, they celebrated and prepared for the difficult winter ahead of them, described by Bradford: “Being thus arrived in a good harbor and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and bless the God of Heaven, who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof...” (Bradford 60). The amount of joy that they felt when they arrived in Cape Cod safely is unimaginable. After facing such a threat in Europe, the relief of knowing that they...
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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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...Throughout history, greed is an all too common theme. This spans back to the beginning of human civilization and shown through both fiction and nonfiction writings of several very different time periods. Events in Equiano’s narrative, Miller’s play, and Bradford’s accounts prove this demonstrating how some people such as the Puritans seek new opportunities and freedom in a new land while others, like the crew members of the Mayflower, exploit it for their own benefit, creating greed as the basis for which America was built upon. This exploitation of people for the benefit of others was extremely prevalent in the founding of America and followed it through hundreds of years. In the accounts of William Bradford, the suffering of the pilgrims...
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