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Olaudah Equiano: Great Fortune And Journey To Freedom

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Khoa Pham
Professor David Howard Pitney
History 17A section 03
10/21/2017
Question A2
Olaudah Equiano: Great Fortune and Journey To the Freedom
Is it possible for a slave to earn the knowledge and get out of the slavery in the 18th century? It requires a great fortune with hard-working and learning. Olaudah Equiano was the person that had changed his fate, as a slave, survived among the Whites and Europeans, saved money by the merchant, bought himself a ticket to become freedom one more time. He was kidnaped when he was eleven, which was too young for him to face such a terrible event in his life, and was sold to many of the owners. His experiences and point of view toward life kept increasing through the time he was a slave. The life was not …show more content…
After having many opportunities to learn navigation in the vessels and trading, Equiano used to think about running away from slavery, but when the chance came, he didn’t choose to escape from King. Thus, after King mentioned about selling him away because he heard that Equiano planned to escape from him, Equiano, at that moment, had his man-made fortune that he didn’t run away with other crews as a proof. Equiano stated:
“They would have had me also to go with them, for they regarded me; and they swore to protect me if I would go: and, as the fleet was to sail the next day, I really believe I could have got safe to Europe at that time. However, as my master was kind, I would not attempt to leave him”(111).
In order to explain, Equiano earned the belief of captain Farmer and his master, King, after the event that he stayed with the vessels no matter what. After that, King plained more believe on Equiano and created him more chances to experience economic condition with the inland …show more content…
In the early chapter, he was under the hand of the woman owner that was kind and she had a son same size with Equiano. In that house, Equiano mentioned that he received well-treat that made he “forget that I was a slave” (54). It was a small moment of happiness after the time he was kidnaped that he received the love from other people. Although his old master, Pascal, sold him away, Equiano was also lucky to have a great opportunity to learn the language under his control. As I mentioned above, Miss Guerin sisters brought to Equiano a new world of knowledge and religion. Then, he kept receiving luck by meeting his master Robert King, who was kind to all of his slaves, kept the promises, and didn’t ill usage Equiano. Speaking about his master King, Equiano wrote: “I had the good fortune to please my master in every department in which he employed me” (96). In order to explain, he believed that serving for King was his great fortune because he received all of the payment and well-treatment. Equiano had a lot of experience with the bad masters, so he understood how wonderful he was treated when he served Mr.King

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