Olaudah Equiano :: essays research papers

Olaudah EquianoOlaudah Equiano was an African American that fell into slavery. He was forced like some(prenominal) other(a) African Americans during the 17th and 18th century. In the short story approximately Olaudah Equiano, it tells about his life and what he went through being a slave. The Narrative has some(prenominal) similar things that we went over in class. I am going to argue a few topics about Equiano and other slaves.First, in that respect was a grass of trading or bartering going on with the white slave owners. They would do their slaves as a material item and not think of them as a person. They thought of them like a product or money. The shell out involved the Americans, the Africans, and finally the western hemisphere Indies. America close toly traded rum for slaves, Africa traded there own people (which would become slaves to whomever owned them) for sugar and molasses with the West Indies. The West Indies would trade rum, molasses, or sugar to America for slaves. This created a &8220Triangular Trade. It was the most popular and resourceful method to get slaves, rum, or any other thing that a certain country wanted. It worked out for everybody trading draw out for the slaves. Equiano was traded for such items in the Narrative. The first person to &8220own Equiano was a Quaker named Robert King. He did most of his business in the West Indies. Equiano was eventually traded for sugar lambaste and was forced to go on a slave ship. The conditions were horrible. Equiano was transported on a slave ship called the &8220Zong. The British Republic owned the Zong. Equiano, as salutary as the other slaves were stuffed under the cargo area. There was so some(prenominal) slaves that they could hardly breathe. They were always hungry because of the little amount of food and the banging amount of slaves. Disease spread throughout the ship causing many slaves to die. They would also die of hunger and getting beaten so much(prenominal) by the whi te crew onboard. Equiano had to survive in these conditions for long periods of time.Equiano was from Nigeria and lived in a powerful village called Essako. The British kidnapped him in 1756. He was kidnapped with his babe and dragged away from there home. A lot of the whites would just go into villages and step forward taking African Americans to be their slaves or to trade them for goods.