Olaudah Equiano Analysis

The excerpt from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, by Olaudah Equiano, touches upon the treatment and life of slaves in the West Indies. Through this short excerpt the reader learns about what he saw while he was a slave in the West Indies islands. Not only are there very few primary sources that have survived from the eighteenth century to modern day, but also there are hardly any sources that come from the viewpoint of a well-educated, free slave. When reading this excerpt one needs to keep in mind biases when it comes to reading an excerpt of a freed slave. Historian can use this excerpt to better understand what it meant to be a slave during this viewpoint. The author of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is Gustavuis Vassa, a former slave who writes upon what he had seen while he was a slave. The name Olaudah Equiano was given to him by
The first historical question is how slaves were treated and what everyday life looked like for a slave who found themselves on the West Indies islands. The excerpt from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, allows the reader to have better insight through a former slave’s view point on what work and punishments took place during the his time on the island. One of the points Mr. Equiano touches upon is the cruelty the slave owners and the slave traders inflicted upon the slaves who found themselves on the island. This short excerpt focuses on a few of the horrors Equiano witnessed as well as showing the freedom that free people had when it came to punishments. Mr. Equiano’s states, “…pinned the wretch to the ground, at each wrist and ankle, and the took some sticks of sealing wax, lighting them, and dropping it all over his back,” (Equiano page 112). This insight Mr. Equiano writes about gives the reader and historians an insight what it meant to be a slave in the eighteenth