Olaudah Equiano Research Paper

Olaudah Equiano is well known historically as a narrative that overcame slavery in order to achieve the ideal that all men are created equally. At eleven years old when he was abducted, he went through troubling times as an African American and was able to tell his horrifying yet fascinating experience as a slave on the voyage known as The Middle Passage.
On this voyage, the conditions were horrifying, hopeless, brutal and wretched, some of the words from Olaudah. The high mortality rates were caused by the disease infested rooms. The temperatures were unbearable, hot and covered with blood and mucus. The African Americans were deprived of food, healthcare and neglected proper treatments. Due to the overcrowded conditions, this caused the diseases which killed many passengers. It’s saddening when Olaudah says that, “Sleep was the only temporary refuge.” The life on the boats were so horrible that some preferred death than to their gruesome future.

As the conditions worsened, the situations with the slave traders can be described even worse.

The way the Europeans treated the Negros were immoral and corrupt. The Europeans viewed them as cargo and treated them in an inhumane way. The brutality that they were treated with is unimaginable. Oaudah was treated as if he were cargo below the deck. Slave traders felt that they had to keep their power by beating, torturing, lying and terrifying the innocent Africans. Oaudah and others felt hopeless and isolated by the harsh life and of course many wanted to rebel towards the slave traders. However, they were to afraid and shocked to even take any action of

rebellion.
Many experiences differ depending on the masters and Equiano viewed and shared his distinction about the Europeans. As he observed each slave owner, he differentiated between the brutalities of the “civilized” Europeans. These Europeans did not dehumanize him and treated him as a peer unlike the slave owners on the ship. He can account for this by surviving voyage and arriving in the New World.
Once arriving in the New World, slave traders let slaves from land come aboard to tell Africans that they would be able to work and it definitely gave them some sense of hope.
Oaudah Equiano regained little hope as he felt optimistic after hearing he could work in America. Working was much better than the living conditions he had to face on the ships. He then starts a new journey as he learns to read and becomes more spiritual in the religion of Christianity. He gains fascinating experiences traveling on board a ship with his master and his views then changed. He starts to see himself as more of a European then an African and is truly enlightened by their intelligence and good manners. He is able to work for his freedom and values it that much more.
Throughout his many experiences, he overcomes the most troubling times of his life and is remarkably changed by his encounters as a slave. He was kidnapped as a young child and regained his freedom as a new and changed mature adult. He restored his freedom and obtained education along the way. His achievements as a leader and the author of the first slave narrative is historically acknowledged. Olaudah Equiano was the voice and helped to lead thousands of slaves who went through the same thing. They definitely related by the similar lifestyle they lived. His belief in abolishing slavery was driven by the situations he was exposed to. Looking into his story gave us an illustration in the life of surviving voyage, yet we will never really begin to understand the unthinkable acts of brutalism that he went through. Oaudah Equiano is a phenomenal individual who shaped history for the better!