Olaudah Equiano: from "The Life of Olaudah Equiano" - Discuss

Question 1

note

Answer 1

• according to his autobiographical account, The Life of Olaudah Equiano, he was someone who owned slaves himself, but who experienced first-hand how the slave trade treated its victims. while all of it is cruel, he felt that separating families was one of the slave trade’s cruelest aspects
• Equiano’s experience as both a slave and one who owned slaves makes him an authority on which treatments where the cruelest
• when you’re evaluating if Equiano’s quote is consistent with his views of slavery, pay attention to the specific language of the more power quotes, such as his ironic use of the word “refinement”. in the last section of the narrative when he writes “are the dearest friends and relations, now rendered more dear by their separation from their kindred, still to be parted from each other, and thus prevented from cheering the gloom of slavery with the small comfort of being together and mingling their sufferings and sorrows”

Question 2

if you were making a point that Equiano justified himself as a slave owner because he felt that black slave owners were better than white slave owners, which of these passages from Paragraph 4 shows this thinking and would best support your thesis

Answer 2

• I even wished for my former slavery in preference to my present situation

Question 3

if you were making the point that Equiano should have done more than be kind to his own slaves - he should have actually freed them - which of these quotes from Paragraph 9 of his own account as a slave would best support your thesis

Answer 3

• I envied them the freedom they enjoyed, and as often wished I could change my condition for theirs

Question 4

one of the cruelties Equiano experienced as a slave that he might have tried to avoid as a slave owner is indicated in which part of Paragraph 4 on the left

Answer 4

• on my refusing to eat, one of them held me fast by the hands… while the other flogged me severly

Question 5

if you were making the point that Equiano felt the separation of families and loved ones was the worst torture the slave dealers inflicted on the slaves, which citation below would give the strongest support

Answer 5

• this is a new refinement in cruelty which adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery

Question 6

one of the cruelties Equiano experienced as a slave that he might have tried to avoid as a slave owner is exemplified in the passage on the left, namely

Answer 6

• the slave traders showed complete disregard for the needs or comforts of the slaves

Question 7

answers

Answer 7

• the importance of a slave’s relationships with other slaves of his own nation or family
• par 6: one white mane in particular I saw… flogged so unmercifully… that he died in consequence
• many slaves preferred death to the torture they had to endure at the hands of the slave traders
• Equiano’s feelings about the hypocrisy he found in the “Christian” slave traders