Slavery And Religion In John Milton's Paradise Lost

Olaudah Equiano’s narrative describes his life in regards to the Atlantic Slave Trade and his Christian faith. These two topics, while they seem very different, were in fact interconnected in Equiano’s experiences. Each religion, in concordance with societal morals and geography, came with a different version of slavery, as Equiano explained. Contrasts in Equiano’s morals and society’s morals also show the link between the institutions of slavery and religion. During Equiano’s travels he noted that there are different types of slavery in different geographic regions. He associated the geographic region with the popular religion and found himself comparing their cruelty to how spiritually righteous they were. He spoke of the Turks in higher standards than the American Christians and vowed to live out his days in Turkey, convinced he would have a better chance of getting salvation. The importance of this statement is that although he shared a religion with the European and American people, they did not share the same moral values. He also said that he did not understand how people could accept the effects …show more content…
This poem holds a large religious tone, talking about the devil’s perspective in the story of Adam and Eve, and in a particular passage, he quotes Milton on a verse that describes Satan and his followers suffering from God’s wrath. One reason as to why he may have included this is to not compare the slaves to Satan and the masters to God, but rather to connect the great sufferings and eternal bond of the subjugated parties to the ones with greater power. Equiano was an abolitionist and he used this comparison to show that the slaves were suffering on a greater level and they had a force above their control that was inflicting this