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Equiano's Narrative

 After completing the first three chapters of Equiano's narrative, I have to say it was pretty difficult. I have always struggled with reading English from older time periods. I remember the first time I was asked to read Shakespeare I spent hours annotated and trying to make sense of everything. I eventually watched the movie, which felt like cutting corners but it helped me better understand what was going through the characters' heads. If I had to choose one word to describe the first three chapters of Equiano's narrative, I would choose bizarre. Nothing about Equiano's early adulthood is normal to me. He was kidnapped from his family at age 11 and was consistently kidnapped many times after that to be sold into slavery. Eventually, he was sold into slavery to Europeans who took him to the Americas. His consistent tone suggests as though everything he has gone through is normal. It's amazing to me how much travel around the world Equiano did in such a short period of time. Before this read, I always assumed that any slave was treated poorly by their "master." However, it sounds like slavery was more normalized in Africa and slaves were treated much nicer. In the Americas, slaves were treated poorly.

Comments

  1. AnonymousFebruary 6, 2023 at 4:25 PM

    Hi James, that is astute of you to point out that we can compare the treatment of slaves in different parts of the world through Equiano's narrative. Not only is he treated differently in Africa than in the European slave trade, but we can also see a harsher treatment in the time he spent in America. Overall his experiences however have been less horrific than one may expect from this story.

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