Olaudah Equiano, Enlightenment Era
Olaudah Equiano is credited with surviving, and perhaps even thriving in, perilous circumstances that would have destroyed the best of men. His is a character study in complexity because he has an extremely trenchant mind, as manifested in his verbal prowess and in his business acumen, the latter of which was directly responsible for the purchasing of his own freedom from chattel slavery in the 18th century. However, that incisive mind of his was also indelibly stained with the perspective of Western supremacy, which eventually eradicated virtually all respect he had for his indigenous way of life. To his credit, he was able to overcome the personal horrors of slavery and, for the duration of the rest of his life, became a staunch advocate for the end of the institution that mercilessly wrenched him from his family and from his native perspective at a tender age. An examination of various aspects of Equiano's life demonstrates the fact that these were his only admirable feats, and that the rest of his life was spent pitifully wallowing in the notion of Western superiority and African inferiority.
It is extremely disturbing to see how much Equiano was completely 'whitewashed' after surviving slavery and assimilating to European society afterwards. He married a European woman, and readily took up the virtues of Christianity, which is one of the most preeminent Western religions on the face of the earth and, more importantly, one of the primary tools used to ultimately justify the form of chattel slavery that...
Equiano and Slavery Equiano's main purpose in writing this Narrative was to inspire Parliament to abolish the African slave trade, which he stated at the beginning when he presented it in 1789. Part of his strategy was to describe himself as a humble "unlettered African" grateful to the West for obtaining knowledge of Christianity, liberalism, and humanitarian principles who is petitioning on behalf of his "suffering countryman" (p. 2). For the
Even with that, the fact that Equiano came across several supportive masters across his life as a slave was essential in making him better prepared to deal with conditions in a society that was generally inclined to favor white individuals in favor of black people. Matters were critical for slaves living at the time, especially for those working on plantations set on the American continent, with their masters being willing
3). The first division consists of men; married women make up the second division; the third division is "young men" and "maidens" are seen in the fourth (Equiano, p. 4). To Europeans who thought all African native cultures were simplistic and barbaric, the dances that Equiano describes certainly must have stirred creative interest because the dances reflected "some interesting scene of real life" such as "some rural sport" and
constructing responses titles I listing. In response make show reference entry. (01) Discuss One of the most powerful movements that transformed European society during the early modern era was the dissemination of information and the propagation of reading material due to Johannes Gutenberg's invention of the printing press around 1450 A.D. The movement that would prove to have the most impact upon society as a whole, however, was the imperialist
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