The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano And La Relacion

Are you familiar with what a primary source is? A primary source is a story that comes directly to you from the author who lived that story a long time ago. An Egyptian might have written a story, and that story today would be a primary source. In class, these past two weeks have been full of primary source stories. The stories are “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,” by Olaudah Equiano and “La Relacion,” by Cabeza de Vaca. Although Olaudah Equiano’s narrative and Cabeza de Vaca’s account have benefits as primary sources, they also have limitations. “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” follows the story of a young African American boy being placed into slavery. He wrote this story to tell people …show more content…
He wrote his story to the King to explain what all happened to his men. When they washed up on shore, they were taken captive by Native Americans. He lived a life of adventure, from being held captive, to being exiled from Spain, and then becoming a governor, he lived a life of adventure. The author’s purpose was to tell the Kind what all happened on his trip, and why everyone died, and how he survived. A benefit from the text would be that you can explain why some men never came home, because ships had sunk a lot back then. Also many people died while on voyages because of starvation and sickness. La Relacion stated: “It was winter and bitterly cold, and we had suffered hunger…my barge had fallen over on one another, close to death” (74, 1-6). A limitation would be that he described his way of healing as the best way. Many people back then believed their way was the best, so he could be exaggerating, or his way might not work at all, and he said it did. Relacion said: “They insisted we should do this too and be some use to them. We scoffed at their cures and at the idea we knew how to heal” (78 107-109). I believe that this story was more exaggeration than fact, just because he wanted the King on his side, and wanted to make it sound like he was a big …show more content…
I thought “La Relacion” was a very informative story, but I think the author exaggerated a lot, and made the story all about him. “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano” was also a great story, and I was completely shocked when I heard that he may not have exactly lived the story he told us. Once I figured it out, I could see why he would put himself in the story. He just wanted people to stop slavery, and it sounds more personal if he puts himself in it. My favorite primary source was for sure “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”. I found both stories very entertaining and