Olaudah Equiano Compare And Contrast

When comparing The Negro’s Complaint written by William Cowper and The Interesting narrative of Olaudah Equiano we first have to look at the slave trade that occurred during this time period. In both literary pieces, we can see that both narrators were forced from their homeland and sold as property to other people. Along with that, each one of them served several masters throughout the story as well. Although both narrator agreed that slavery was wrong in many different way, they both handled their situation different from one another. In the The Negro’s Complaint, the narrator incorporated his religious views into the way he handled the situation while in The Interesting narrative of Olaudah Equiano, Gustavus was genuine about his thoughts. …show more content…
This aspect was made even worse because these men were unwillingly taken, sold, and given different identities each time they changed masters. The brutality and suffering that each man endured as they made the trip across the Atlantic was inhuman. One great example of the brutality and suffering can be found at the beginning of chapter 3 in The Interesting narrative of Olaudah Equiano. Based on Gustavus comment, the readers can fully understand the condition that all the slaves had to endured as they made their treacherous journey across the Atlantic. “Now exceedingly miserable” and “wished for death rather than anything else”. (Chapter 3) This situation could also been seen in The Negro's Complaint as well. In the first two lines of the poem, the slave states that he was “Forced from home and all its pleasures; Africa’s coast he left forlorn.” (Line 1-2) Although both narrators saw that the slave trade was just greedy and inhuman, the way they came to that conclusion only represents the differences between Equiano and