Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano

Could you envision waking up one morning and an ordinary person, like you and me, comes and takes you away from your family, freedom, and rights as a human? In the 1700s, African Americans were abducted from their dormitories, auctioned off, and sold into slavery. Some of them favored the idea of coming to the New World as indentured servants, but when they arrived things changed. During this time, the notion of “ all men being free,” was proposed by Benjamin Franklin, but in contrary, all men weren’t necessarily free. The work “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” by Olaudah Equiano described the life and emotion of how the experience of being sold into slavery affected him. In Equiano’s narrative, he distinguished a
visual in such a way as to go against the practice of slavery within the colonies and influenced revolutionary thinking in the 1700s. “Equiano was born among the Ibo people in the kingdom of Benin, along the Nile River” (Equiano). His father was chief of the kingdom they lived in; his family hoped that he would follow his father’s footsteps and become the same later in life. Meanwhile, the family of Equiano’s owned slaves, even though he thought it was wrong. One day when Equiano and his sister were home alone, two men and a woman came and abducted them from their home. A few days passed and the siblings were separated. They traveled on ships with thousands of other African Americans who they didn’t know. Could you imagine being in a compact space, with scarce food, surrounded by strangers? He was torn away from his life, family, and any other hobbies or friends that he had; this dreadful affair is what initiated his opposing perspective on slavery. “For several days I did not eat anything but what they forced into my mouth,” (Equiano). Three months onto the ship, Equiano and the other fellow slaves had nothing but stale bread to eat . The slaves were exposed to several diseases that other sickly slaves had. They didn’t get any medical attention; when the slaves died they just threw them overboard like they were bait for the sharks. Equiano’s depression and his surroundings caused him to want nothing but death to come and save him. The humanity in the captains and crewmen seem to have been diminished because their actions towards the slaves were brutal and cruel. “After length, after many days traveling, during which I had often changed masters,” (Equiano). Many slaves back in this time, including Equiano, never really had a rational place to stay. Once they learned how to sustain the land they were on, they would be auctioned off again. They were passed from master to master and traveled from ship to ship. Most of the slaves were illiterate and didn't know half of the places they were traveling to. Luckily, Equiano had a few slave masters that sent him to school, taught him some house things, and taught him different languages. After all, things are considered, there are many reasons why Equiano was against slavery and wrote just that. The slaves were treated horrible and didn't deserve all the things that happened to them. Most of them tried to commit suicide just to escape the depression and trips on the slave ships. Their unalienable rights as human beings were torn away like a bandage. Equiano’s narrative “ The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” had a revolutionary effect on the slave perspectives of the people in the 1700s.