Olaudah Equianos Views of Slavery in his Narrative of the Life 1789 His views are forged from his own personal journey as a slave, specifically in the areas of class, religion, and his sense of economics in the marketplace. Equiano originally came from a small district of the Kingdom of Benin in Africa. In his village Essaku, his family was of the upper class, as seen from Equianos description of a certain mark that his father, who was a chief, bore. This mark of grandeur was only worn by certain men: Most of the judges and senators were thus marked; my father had long borne it; I had seen it conferred on one of my brothers, and I also was destined to receive it by my parents This mark would have identified Equiano as an Embrenche, or chief, in his village. He would have had the power to settle disputes and punish wrongdoings committed by the village people, had he not been taken from this society. In his small village, Equiano had never seen or heard of either white people or the ocean. But he was well acquainted with the institution of slavery, as his upper-class family owned a large number of slaves. HOWEVER, EQUIANO SAW THIS SLAVERY AS COMPLETELY DIFFERENT FROM WHAT HE SAW WHEN TAKEN INTO CAPTIVITY HIMSELF. HERE, AT LEAST SLAVES WERE TREATED HUMANELY, ALTHOUGH THEY HAD THEIR FREEDOM TAKEN AWAY FROM THEM: How different was their condition from that of the slaves in the West Indies! WITH US, THEY DO NO MORE WORK THAN OTHER MEMBERS OF THE COMMUNITY, EVEN THEIR MASTER; THEIR FOOD, CLOTHING, AND LODGING WERE NEARLY THE SAME AS THEIRS; AND THERE WAS SCARCE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM, THAN A SUPERIOR DEGREE OF IMPORTANCE WHICH THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY POSSESSES IN OUR STATE...SOME OF THESE SLAVES HAVE EVEN SLAVES UNDER THEM AS THEIR OWN PROPERTY, AND FOR THEIR OWN USE ANY DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM THAN A SUPERIOR DEGREE OF IMPORTANCE WHICH THE HEAD OF THE FAMILY POSSESSES IN OUR STATE.
Posted on: Thu, 06 Mar 2014 13:08:40 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015