Benjamin Franklin's Influence On Olaudah Equiano

Benjamin Franklin was born to a large family, at a young age he was taken out of school to work. Looking back at this later, he regrets his lack of formal education. His abhorrence to the field of work he was placed in allowed him a realm of discovery to find a field that better suited him. Olaudah Equiano was a young boy happily living in a tribal part of Africa. Equiano was uprooted from all that he knew, he writes that he had been “the greatest favourite of his mother, and was always with her”(Equiano 23-24). Abruptly taken from his mother’s love he was soon dragged into the confusing and twisted slave trade. Both men were now lost and purposeless, Franklin, without his literature and schoolwork was lost in world of trades and work forces. While Franklin was meandering around trying to find what trade would best suit him, Equiano was brought into a new and unfamiliar world of confusion, hard …show more content…
Equiano had grown up in a very precise and different environment than Franklin had, his tribal upbringing allowed him to base his foundation of morals and ideals, but was ripped out from under Equiano at a young age. Equaino experienced a much more restricted version of travel than Franklin had, he could not go gallivanting about trying to find his place, Equiano began to latch on to beliefs of those around him, choosing which ones he felt were morally correct. Equiano found himself a form of religion and became more and more devout throughout his life. It can even be argued that Equiano had been forced into religion. The circumstances he was put in left him in the midst of very godly individuals who pushed ideals and morals on him. Nonetheless, Equiano chose to accept this way of thinking and continues the trend by almost pushing his religious ideals on the