Essay On Olaudah Equiano

In the late 18th Century an ex-slave from Nigeria wrote an influential work that helped to end the British Slave trade. Olaudah Equiano, or Gusta Vassa, wrote The interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gusta Vassa, the African in 1789 which told of his personal experiences with slavery from a rational, persuasive point of view, focusing on the religious aspects of Christianity, the worth of Africans and the brutally detrimental effects of the slave trade. He was particularly calculated in his appeals since they were effective in the use of ethos, pathos and logos.

Equiano was born in 1745 in Nigeria to a group he refers to as the Igbo people. At the age 12, he was taken from his homeland and put into slavery, spending much

“I thought God might perhaps have permitted this, in order to teach me wisdom and resignation” (Equiano 1004). Regarding this quote, the writer gives impression that religion is the reason that he was disappointed countless times when he tried to obtain his freedom. Such a pious tone of acceptance and not anger seems peculiar for a man who lost the chance at his freedom. Also, Equiano refuses to lay blame to either new or old slave owner and instead considers this a trial for his spirit. The Christian doctrine is another topic he spotlights in his writing when he asks a slave owner who had sold “41,000 negroes” and cut off a man’s legs for attempting to escape (Equiano 1009). “I asked him if the man had died in the operation, how he, as a Christian, could answer for the horrid act, before God. And he told me, answering was a thing of another world; what he thought and did were policy” (Equiano 1009). In this quote, Equiano notes the separation between what he believes the Christine doctrine says and how the white men slavers perceive their actions as something they do not need to alter while they are alive. A reverent plea to this white man could not persuade him that his parting from religious doctrine and claiming the religion was unscrupulous. Religious determination despite the cruel aspects of his life makes

“Such a tendency has the slave trade to debauch men’s minds, and harden them to every feeling of humanity” (Equiano 1013). The fact that Equiano could separate the institution of slavery from the white slave owners and focus on the main problem shows that he is a rational intelligent writer. Equiano became a strong supporter of the abolitionist movement which led to the writing of this work. He truly believed that no man should have authority over another man and once he bought his own freedom he continued to pursue this for others as