Olaudah Equiano Quotes

Improved Essays
Olaudah Equiano references religion in the first chapter of his book where he speaks of his African tribe believing in one creator who governs events, especially death or captivity and then in chapter 2 of his book where he speaks of African brothers being separated when sold and crying out at parting, “O, ye nominal Christians! Might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?” 1 During his young life, Olaudah witnessed more abuse and cruelty than he himself personally experienced because most of the people he encountered took a liking to him and treated him with kindness, but still this led him to wonder if these Europeans were some sort of evil …show more content…
Kitts in a hurried departure. He also talks about his hope to obtain his freedom and how he would pray anxiously to God for his liberty.11 When in the town of Philadelphia he heard of a woman who revealed secrets and foretold events but put little stock in this as he could not conceive how any mortal could foresee the future and again he references his belief in only the Holy Scripture.12 To his astonishment, he dreamt of this woman and anxiously became compelled to see her and have her tell him of both his past and future events, which she did.13 This woman predicted that Olaudah would experience two harrowing experiences and should he survive them then he would gain his freedom.13 Not long after he became very ill with a fever nearly dying which led him to pray to the Lord to spare him, promising in his mind to God that he would be good if he should recover.14 Not long after, the second harrowing event occurred when he was brutally beaten bloody and jailed where he would have probably died had not his captain came in search of him and nursed him back to health.14 Just as the woman had predicted freedom came shortly thereafter, and again Olaudah references the Psalmist, in the 126th Psalm, saying, “And like him, I glorified God in my heart, in whom I trusted”, declaring that these words have been impressed on his mind from the …show more content…
18 He was weary of his duty on the ship and became impatient uttering, “Damn the vessel’s bottom out” which immediately bothered his conscience.18 Shortly thereafter, in a storm, the ship struck against some rocks which horrified him and according to him caused all of his sins to stare him in the face and to think that God had hurled his direful vengeance on his guilty head for cursing the vessel on which his life depended.19 Feeling fearful and possibly undeserving of forgiveness, he thought of how the Lord had often delivered him in times past which still gave him some hope that he might still help him, but conditions grew worse and when the captain ordered the men to nail down the hatches where the slaves were, Olaudah thought his sin was the cause of all of this and that God would charge him with these people’s blood; this though so overwhelmed him that he passed out but when he came to he labored with all of his might for their

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