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Difference Between Death And Slavery By Olaudah Equiano

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Difference Between Death And Slavery By Olaudah Equiano
Death vs Slavery In the first five chapters of The Interesting Narrative by Olaudah Equiano, there is a pattern of a preference of death over life. Equiano and other enslaved people see death as the only way of gaining liberation and, as a result, they embrace it. This pattern of a preference of death over life is easily characterized by it showing up every time Equiano or a fellow slave is plagued by a difficult situation. Equiano expresses his preference of death over life after he is sold to a master in Virginia. Being a slave in this new environment, he was confined to himself as no one else shared his language. Everything was new to him. He says that, “In this state I was constantly grieving and pining…wishing for death rather than

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    Equiano’s autobiography is a direct and diplomatic plea to the royal class in England for the abolition of slavery. In a letter directed to the Parliament of Great Britain he writes “May the God of Heavens inspire your hearts with peculiar benevolence on that important day when the question of Abolition is to be discussed, when thousands in consequence of your determination, are to look for happiness or misery!” (The Classic Slave Narratives, page 18).…

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    The impressions of the people they met were different. Equiano had a horrible encounter with the slave traders on the ship he was on. He mentioned, “Every circumstance I met with, served only to render my state more painful, and heightened my apprehensions,…

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    Equiano’s document tell us many things, including how the people viewed the society and the morality of the public at that time. This document also show us how far we have come, as a society, as the whole world, from the time of brutality, time of savage, to the time of peace, and sociality. This document still has effect on our society even to this day, because even to this day, the discrimination against a group of people because of their race, religions, or nationality still exist. This document reveal how the slaves were treated, how slaves were nothing but a property, and how the Africans view the european.…

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    Both documents confirm this as they establish the terrible confinement of slaves during shipments. This apathetic treatment eventually blossomed into a devastating environment for slaves aboard the ship, however, as described by a slave who observed a “sickness among the slaves, of which many died” stemming from the dense packing of people and subsequent odors (Document #2). In fact, Equiano recounts the preference of death to captivity aboard slave ships, as two sick slaves drowned themselves rather than maintain their status. The only solace Equiano experiences stems from seeing land and realizing a temporary relief from…

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    His experience during the Middle Passage shows the harsh realities of how slaves were treated from the point of a slave. Equiano tells the audience about his horrifying experiences with pathos, to make the larger argument saying he resists imperialism. While describing the tight packed under deck of the ship, the filth in which people laid, and the feelings of the men who were suffering he uses words like, “Intolerably loathsome”, “suffocation”, “sickness”, “filth”, “scene of horror”, “life of misery”, “unmercifully”, and “death” (2815). Each one of these words or phrases forms an image of squalor and utter despair of the slaves on these ships. He uses pathos here, to resist the imperialist belief that Europeans are civilized because after reading the descriptions of the slave’s treatment, the “civilized” (Tully) European is contradicted on top of Equiano’s pathos. He creates the idea of the “savage” European when he remarks on how they treat slaves as well as their own people: “The white people looked and acted…in so savage a manner; and this is not only shewn towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves” (2814). The additional perspective of the Europeans supports Equiano’s main argument about how Europeans do not follow their own writings of imperialism and how they are savage, not civilized people. His pathos might also appeal to the reader’s emotions and make them feel pity and sorrow for how the Europeans treat the slaves. In describing the Middle Passage with anguish, Equiano resists the idea that European imperialism and their beliefs are right through describing how the Europeans act as “savage” (2814) which ultimately shows the extent of the European treatment towards the…

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    Once Equiano got onto the slave ship, I think he was certain of his fate. He had never seen Europeans before and he was absolutely horrified by their image and the unfamiliar language they spoke. When Equiano saw the other blacks chained up and saw the amount of “dejection and sorrow” (206) they were expressing, it horrified him to the point that he passed out. I can’t imagine how frightened he was. If I saw people of my kind chained, abused, and in grief, it would frighten me too. When in scary situations, children look to adults for safety and security. What are you to do when the adults are just as frightened as you are and you’re a child? If I were a child in this situation I would feel hopeless, horrified, and scared for my life. There was a massive amount of brutal cruelty that took place on the slave ship from excessive flogging to the suffocation of innocent slaves. Equiano wished for death to comfort him many times throughout the narrative but the compassion in the way he stated it this time really broke my heart. “Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep much happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs” (Equiano…

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    Equiano argues that the slave trade in his culture uses slaves that are convicted of “heinous” crimes or are “only prisoners of war,” whereas the Britons practice kidnapping as the main mode of obtaining slaves (Equiano 3). By describing the slaves from his homeland as criminals or enemies, he is minimizing the value of their lives and makes it seem less harsh than the capture of British slaves, but he is using the same reasoning as the Briton do to validate their participation in the slave trade. Additionally, he refers to them as “fellow creatures,” which dehumanizes the captured people and takes them to even a lower level below the criminals (Equiano 5). Additionally, he makes comparisons to the “condition” of treatment for his country’s slaves “from that of the slaves in the West Indies!” (Equiano 4). He is comparing how the British who are considered enlightened, treat their slaves like animals and looks to them as disposable property; whereas, his society gives their slaves enough respect to treat them humanely in a civilized manner. He tries to make slavery in his homeland seem less oppressive by describing the slaves as doing “no more work than any other member of the community” and “their food, clothing, and lodging” were basically the same as everyone else (Equiano 5). He stresses that some of the slaves “have even slaves under them as their own property,” which ignores the fact that these people are still enslaved and are there against their free will. Equiano fails to denounce the participation in the slave trade in his homeland and uses class status as an excuse for slaveholding. Interestingly, he does not argue for the freedom of the slaves in this section, but focuses only on the brutal treatment of them. He questions why the ancestors of the Britons who were…

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    Equiano exceeded in his duties as an ideal Christian and worshiper of the faith. As Equiano states, “I began to raise my fear from man to him alone.” (88) through Christianity, he was able to overcome his fear of white men while being enslaved to the fear of God alone. Equiano believed that “if it were God's will I ever should be freed it would be so… if it was not his will it would not happen” (80). Showing how he attributed his life circumstances to God’s will and guidance. In doing so he escaped his fears. For as long as he was a good Christian, God would have mercy on him. In fact, Equiano notes many events in his life that suggested God was watching over him. Equiano’s strong faith and devotion lead to his connections with people who in turn supported him and his story as advocacy for the abolition of…

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    While describing his gruesome journey to North America, Equiano recounts a day on which three men jumped into the ocean in order to escape slavery, explaining that “However, two of the wretches were drowned, but they got the other, and afterwards flogged him unmercifully, for thus attempting to prefer death to slavery” (Equiano 2). The sailors on the ship attempt to save the three men only because they are valuable cargo that will make a considerable profit. Because these people are being treated like mere merchandise, there is no such thing as freedom for them in the moment. They have nothing left to lose, making death infinitely preferable to enduring the intolerable conditions on the ship. As evidenced by the suffering Equiano and his peers experienced, freedom completely ceases to exist without…

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