Equiano begins his narrative in the simple, yet enthusiastic voice that carries the reader

throughout his life story. He makes his plans entirely clear, he intends his narrative to

open the world's eyes to the degradation and inhumanity of slavery. Yet he knows, too,

that merely preaching of goodwill towards Africans would not turn any heads. He must

show directly the irony that those naming others "barbarians" were the barbaric ones

themselves. His intensely personal story, with detailed descriptions of what he saw cruel

or ordinary and of how one African dealt with forced encounters with different lands and

cultures, was what it would take for Englishmen to relate and thus to understand. We are

going to look at who Equiano's audience was and how he tried to reach these particular

Equaino writes his narrative in a very honest and informal form, as if he is writing

to someone that he knows well. The audience however, seems to be the people of the

Americas as well as Europe, not just other blacks or slaves. For this reason the book is

published in America as well as Europe several times while Equia

novels of the day. Action-adventure-travel stories (to which genre Equiano's story at least

order to reach all of his audiences. We can see that by his attempts to tell his story with a

freedom of the slaves, and this is a difficult subject to get the Queen of England to listen

are an interesting step in the evolution of British Literature, African-American Literature,

action, rather than an angry slave trying to get back at the slaveholders.

and tries to convey his message of the unjust inhumanity of slavery.

speaker/writer must appeal (literally) to dual audiences. The values, beliefs, and interests

try to change history in the present by constructing a portrait of misery in the past.

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 935
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)