Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano

From reading Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, the African you get a true sense of what the world was like in the 1700’s when it came to the slave trades. Equiano, along with his sister, was taken and put into the slave trade industry at a young age. He was first sold to British slavers around 1756 and continued to make his way around the world as a slave until he was able to buy his freedom. Equiano’s story goes to show that along with hope, faith and never giving up on whatever you are working for can pay off in the end. From a young age Equiano was meant for great things. His father was an elder in his tribe along with one of his brothers and he “was destined to receive” (689),
He went through many owners in many different areas until he was sold to Mr. Robert King. Under the ownership of Mr. King, Equiano came to the idea to buy his freedom properly from King rather than run away, “if ever I were freed, whilst I was used well, it should be by honest means” (715). He was told that he could “have it [freedom] for forty pounds sterling money” (716), which is how much King payed for him. Equiano started out by buying a glass tumbler and being able to sell it for twice as much. After doing that a few times he was able to move up to selling fruit, the finally after making a good profit off that was able to sell the rum and sugar that King gave to him. After two years in 1766, and selling a large cargo that included “four barrels of pork” (718), he was able to go to King and buy his freedom properly and get his
However in recent generations it has become less and less practiced. Today there are more and more people that are expecting fast results, and they want them to be good, but if you are not willing to put in the work then you are not going to get what you want. This is the instant generation, where if it doesn’t happen within a small time frame then they move on to whatever is the next thing they hope will be quick and rewarding, which it often is not. If a twenty first century person were to be sent back to the 1700’s and sent to deal with Equiano’s life, they would not make it very far let alone to becoming Mr. King’s property. Now if Equiano were to come to the twenty first century he would most likely succeed in this new world. He would have the drive and the determination to go after whatever it may be that he wants in his life. He was able to succeed with even less resources back then than he would have available to him in the current time