“A person who is the property of and wholly subject to another,” is the definition of slavery according to an online dictionary. Growing up, we hate obeying our parents, and I’m sure many of us once told their parents, “I’m not your slave!” when asked to do something. In reality we have absolutely no idea what it is like to be slave. It’s hard to imagine what being a slave is like, since we didn’t exist during those times. Sure, we learn in history classes perhaps since seventh grade about slavery, but it’s still hard to obtain insight of what life really was like for a slave. It wasn’t until I read the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, that I began to obtain a better understanding of life for the slaves. Through Equiano’s experiences and information,
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In his village he had never heard of white people, but he was familiar with slavery. This was because his family, being considered upper class, owned slaves. However, Equiano stated that this slavery was completely different from what he had seen when he had been kidnapped and taken into captivity. At least in Africa, slaves were treated humanely, even though their freedom had been taken away from them. “With us they do no more work than other members of the community, even their masters; their food, clothing and lodging were nearly the same as theirs…” (Chapter 1). Usually the slaves were prisoners of war or criminals therefore, they deserved the punishment and even then they weren’t treated cruelly. His culture seemed respectable, since they had reasonable rules and ways to treat each other. They were known to be clean and decent, so their lives seemed serene until another district would declare a war. The worst part was that there would be kidnappers on the look out to steal unattended children to use as slaves. In fact, this is how Equiano became a slave. At a young age his sister and him were kidnapped and sold as slaves, but his first owners didn’t seem extremely bad. It wasn’t until he reached the coast and encountered with Europeans for the first time that his life as a slave became a real nightmare. Once he boarded the ship was where he began to learn about the cruel world of slavery in places other than
In his village he had never heard of white people, but he was familiar with slavery. This was because his family, being considered upper class, owned slaves. However, Equiano stated that this slavery was completely different from what he had seen when he had been kidnapped and taken into captivity. At least in Africa, slaves were treated humanely, even though their freedom had been taken away from them. “With us they do no more work than other members of the community, even their masters; their food, clothing and lodging were nearly the same as theirs…” (Chapter 1). Usually the slaves were prisoners of war or criminals therefore, they deserved the punishment and even then they weren’t treated cruelly. His culture seemed respectable, since they had reasonable rules and ways to treat each other. They were known to be clean and decent, so their lives seemed serene until another district would declare a war. The worst part was that there would be kidnappers on the look out to steal unattended children to use as slaves. In fact, this is how Equiano became a slave. At a young age his sister and him were kidnapped and sold as slaves, but his first owners didn’t seem extremely bad. It wasn’t until he reached the coast and encountered with Europeans for the first time that his life as a slave became a real nightmare. Once he boarded the ship was where he began to learn about the cruel world of slavery in places other than