Slavery In Olaudah Equiano's Worlds Together Worlds Apart

Toni Morrison theorized that “With typically eighteenth-century reticence [Olaudah Equiano] records his singular and representative life for one purpose; to change things,” (512). He wanted to challenge the way people viewed slavery. History explains the gruesome and disturbing past that the African slaves experienced in terms of being owned, abused, and controlled under barbaric behaviors of white men. Due to the devastating and unthinkable actions committed to the African slaves, they were unable to share their mistreatment with the world and their voice was forced to stay silent. In literary works, people are able to become a voice throughout history, and because African slaves were kept quiet, they did not get the change to share with the

“The image would thus agitate and move the viewer to join the debate about the slave trade, as Thomas Cooper hoped, and to do so with a new, more human understanding of what was at stake,” Rediker made clear (Rediker, 335). Such picture or diagram told a story in itself, so it gave people an idea of what took place aboard the huge slave ships. It allowed many outsiders to find a little understanding in what was happening on the ocean. Brooks conveyed a message, which held a different interpretation for many, but in actuality, its interpretation was to guide non-abolitionists to see the human suffering that slavery was to European slaveholders. Abolitionists worked hard to put such works out into the public to persuade more people to join the abolishment movement.

In chapter 3, Douglass narrates the tale of a slave who was questioned about his treatment. This slave stated the truth, that he was mistreated, and as a result, he was sold to another trader. Other slaves had learnt from his mistake, according

The story of Frederick Douglass’ is one of the most gruesome stories ever written in American literary history. The narrative goes in-depth about how the process of slavery was. It talks about how people would get whipped for the smallest of issues, dying if they resist enough, and even the process of the slave trade. It even shows how people become very different after the entire system of slavery gets into their minds. Through his powerful narrative, Frederick Douglass demonstrates how slavery dehumanizes not only the enslaved but also the enslaver, as it strips individuals of their basic humanity and perpetuates a system of cruelty and oppression.

For instance, on pages eleven and twelve, Douglass describes how slaveholders often used violence as a tactic keep slaves submissive and to instill fear and terror. This counters Captain Canot’s false, fairy-tale like claim about how slaves weren’t not abused or mistreated by their

The Two Princes of Calabar, written by Randy L. Sparks, is a book about two African American brothers who were kidnapped and sold in to slavery and written in much more detail than a regular history book. This is largely due to the fact that two brothers who were captured as slaves, named Ephraim and Ancona Robin John, documented a story that showed what is was really like to be a slave and to be handled as property during the eighteenth century. This book is written in the first person which gives it an extra edge in not only sharing information with the reader, but realistically portraying the emotions of the two slaves. The book goes into detail on how Africans used to capture other Africans and sell them for profit by detailing the journey of these two brothers.

Marcus Rediker’s The Slave Ship: A Human History was about more than just the process of trading slaves, how the slaves travelled from Point A to Point B and what the traders did to the slaves during the trip. Rediker’s focus remained mainly on the aspect of the humanity of the slaves and the relationships that were forged between the people aboard the ship. Often it is forgotten that the slaves that were kidnapped and sold into slavery were, in fact, human beings. Instead the focus is directed towards statistics and individual events that happen aboard the ships rather than the names of the slaves and their backgrounds.

Through his story, Douglass proves that slavery has negative effects on slaveholders. He uses imagery, flashbacks, and characterization to persuade the reader of the true nature of slavery. His deep thoughts and insights of slavery and the unbalanced power between a slaveholder and his slave are unprompted for a social establishment. Douglass insists that slaveholding fills the soul with sadness and bitter anguish. In addressing effects of slavery on masters cause one man to rethink his moral character and better understand the laws of humanity.

All the terrible and inhuman things that Douglass describes are the practical and usual things that happened in his time, they are not extraordinary. His true stories and multiple details from his life give the reader an idea about the effects of slavery on the life of different people in the

Douglass’s descriptions of the slave trade were extremely vivid, from the details of how American’s viewed slaves, to the sounds of whips cracking and how a woman was encumbered by the weight of the child she carried and the chains that she wore. These details would bring readers to know what it was like to be in a slaves shoes at that time. His speech is driven by first had accounts of the degradations of slavery and would not be credible if it wasn’t for this fact. I believe that Douglass’s tone throughout the speech was hopeful, he enforced the cause of the Ladies’ Anti-Slavery Society with the hopes of making the United States more complete when slavery ended.

He writes about the horrific treatment of enslaved people to show the readers that black people were not views as equal or ‘good enough’. Enslaved people were often valued before being sold. They were ranked among property and livestock. Not only was this severely dehumanizing, but it showed that slave holders did not see the enslaved as equal to them. Douglass also describes the many acts of violence towards him and many others.

The detailed descriptions included in primary sources, along with the descriptive and emotional illustrations included in graphic history are crucial elements in studying and understanding the process and history of the transatlantic slave trade. Rafe Blaufarb and Liz Clarke tie both of these together to help readers truly understand this historic tragedy in the book, Inhuman Traffick: The International Struggle Against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Although different than the standard book that may be used, that simply spews information out in an uncreative and somewhat boring way, this book is a tool that can be chosen in classrooms to teach different aspects of the slave trade. Working together, the primary sources and graphic history

An American Slave,” Douglass discusses the horrors of being enslaved and a fugitive slave. Through Douglass’s use of figurative language, diction and repetition he emphasizes the cruelty he experiences thus allowing readers to under-stand his feelings of happiness, fear and isolation upon escaping slavery. Figurative language allocates emotions such as excitement, dread and seclusion. As a slave you have no rights, identity or home. Escaping slavery is the only hope of establishing a sense of self and humanity.

The voyage to the New World was very cruel for the slaves. In the first passage it says, “they are carried like sheep to the slaughter, and that the Europeans are fond of their flesh.” This shows how awful the slaves were treated. As mentioned before, they were even stripped of all their clothing, and belongings if they had any.

In America as a whole, 13 billion dollars a year is spent on chocolate, but what a lot of people don’t know is that child slaves are the ones behind it. In West Africa, families are surrounded by intense poverty, causing children to work at a young age to help try and support themselves and their loved ones. Children sometimes end up working on cocoa farms because they are told by traffickers that the job pays well. This is not the case, most of them get paid under $2 an hour or not at all which is well below the poverty line. Because families don’t have enough money some children are sold to traffickers, when this happens the families usually don’t know that the children will not get a good education, and the work environment is very dangerous.