Olaudah Equiano Research Paper

In the video, The Literary Realism Movement narrated by Katherine Godin, Realism is defined as “a style and type of writing that emerged during a specific time period in the country’s literary history, when writers sought to portray life as it really was.” During the 1800’s, Africans were treated inhumanly, and beaten like animals. White people only saw blacks as less, and treated them very cruel. Though these races lived in the same country, they both had completely different ideas of their “American Dream.” In Olaudah Equiano’s story, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, he writes about the miserable journey to America, being forced to work as a slave for the white men, and the “American Dream” every slave lived. “The
first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at an anchor, and waiting for its cargo,” wrote Olaudah Equiano in his narrative (22). The men, women, and children were completely unaware of what was happening to them, as Equiano wrote: “Which was soon converted into terror when I was carried on board” (22). As soon as the blacks were on the ship, their bodies were checked for strength, and to make sure they did not have any disease. “When I looked round the ship too, and saw a large furnace of copper boiling, and a multitude of black people of every description chained together, every one of their countenances expressing dejection and sorrow,” Equiano implies (22). Not only did the Africans fear the whites, but also their own race, since other blacks were being paid to force the slaves on to the ship. Over three thousand slaves started the three-month trip to America, though more than half died due to disease, overcrowding, or being thrown over. Some of them even jumped off the ship, knowing what was in store for them when they arrived. Children died on the ships, suffocating from falling into the feces sitting around on the floors. Many of the took their own lives, since they knew they would suffer even more once their destination was reached. When the Africans arrived to America, they were forced off the ship. They were in shock of the land they had never seen before. Only a couple thousand blacks trailed off the ship, most jumped off on the way over or died due to disease and hunger. African men were sold from white men plantation to another, ripping families apart. Women were brought to white homes to help clean, garden, and cook. Children helped work on the farms and in the homes also. The slaves were hardly ever fed, yet were still forced to put their weak bodies to work. When the whites seen them getting weak, they would trade them, and even kill them. Beatings for punishment were popular on the daily, no matter the age or gender of the slave. Most of the time they worked for almost twenty-four hours straight, receiving little pay to no pay. The whites and Africans had completely different ideas of the “American Dream.” For the Americans, their dream consisted of making money, and getting by in life. Many whites went to slave auctions to find workers for their farms and land. They would buy as many as they could afford, since they did not have to pay them for their work. The women stayed in the homes to raise the children, cook meals, and take care of the home.