Working into European Society Olaudah Equiano

A detailed Summary of Working into European Society Olaudah Equiano

There are many spectacles of the world that share as illustrations of the hardship of mankind. The experiences and misfortunes of people lay the pathway for those who follow their example. One of the accounts describing such experiences is the book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano works his way through the levels of society and at the end of his life finds himself fully involved in European culture.

Olaudah Equiano was born in the year 1745 in the village of Essaka, which today is known as Isseke, Nigeria. He lived in this farming village until 1756 when he was kidnapped by the Aro peoples who sold him to various masters within Africa. Equiano was slowly moved through Africa until he reached its coast later that year to board a slave ship headed for the Americas. Upon boarding the American slave ship, Equiano first endures the cruelty of the slave world while traveling the Middle Passage. Equiano recalls that slavery was a part of the Ibo world. However, unlike the European exploitation of Africans, African slaves were acquired as prisoners or booty of war or perpetrators of heinous crimes. Equiano's enslavement did not follow these unwritten rules. He nevertheless recalls his African

Finally, in 1772 Equiano got relief in what he considered his home in London when the Somerset decision declared that slavery cannot exist and that slaves setting foot in England were free. In the following year, he went on an expedition to find an Artic passage to India and in the same year slaves petitioned successfully for and emancipation proclamation in Massachusetts. By this time, Equiano was a very experienced sailor and was an asset on every ship to which he was assigned. Horror struck Equiano in 1774 when his friend John Amis died. Equiano was long adapted to the idea of freedom but when John Amis was tortured to death in the West Indies by a vengeful former master, the horrors of the American culture stuck deep inside his head leaving and imprint there forever. Soon afterwards, Equiano sailed to Spain and had a vision of Christ.

However, even though he anticipated many malignancies, the future would bring him fortune.

It was now between two and three years since I first came to England, a great part of which I had spent at sea; so that I became inured to that service, and began to consider myself as happily situated, for my master treated me always extremely well; and my attachment and gratitude to him were very great. From the various scenes I had beheld on shipboard, I soon grew a stranger to terror of every kind, and was, I in that respect at least almost an Englishman . . .. That fear . . . .which was the effect of my ignorance, wore away as I began to know them. I could now speak English tolerably well, and I perfectly understood everything that was said. I not only felt myself quite easy with these new countrymen, but also relished their society and manners. I no longer looked upon them as spirits, but as men superior to us; and therefore I had the stronger desire to resemble them, to imbibe their spirit, and imitate their manners. (71-72)

Happily perhaps, for myself, I was soon reduced so low here that it was thought necessary to keep me almost always on deck; and from my extreme youth I was not put in fetters. In this situation I expected every hour to share the fate of my companions, some of whom were almost daily brought upon deck at the point of death, which I began to hope would soon put an end to my miseries. Often did I think many of the inhabitants of the deep much more happy than myself. I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished, I could change my condition for theirs. (56)

remained only a short time on this plantation and was then sold to another master.

Many thoughts raced through

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Approximate Word count = 1732
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

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