A Journey In Olaudah Equiano's Narrative Journey

“ I BELIEVE it is difficult for those who publish their own memoirs to escape the imputation of vanity…” states Olaudah Equiano as he begins the narrative journey of his life, his struggles, and his accomplishments (1: 1). The year was 1745 when his life story began. It started out in a valley called Essaka, which is in the province of Eboe. Where he came from, white men were not common, but he would soon experience these white men for himself. Olaudah Equiano came from a well esteemed lineage. His father and brother were held to a high regard in his community as chief men, or Embrence. These Embrence were marked across their forehead, so that those who looked upon them would know they were of importance. He then goes on to explain some of the customs of where he grew up. For example, some of the marriage customs, relationship between man and wife, and the type of …show more content…
He then ends up returning to London to set up a place of sanctuary for freed slaves called the Sierra Leone resettlement project. However, this ended up failing due to the fact of the time of year, the land was not able to cultivate crops, so they were not going to be able to prosper (2: 230-237). He also spoke out about how the abolition of slavery would be beneficial to society. How people could prosper from the African market through cotton, indigo, and mining. He also explains how the abolition of slavery could even be “… an universal good.” (2: 251-252). However, even though Equino fought for the abolition of slavery, some of his actions supported slavery. For example, he thought that the lives of those who were freed to have it worse than those who were enslaved. He said that those who were freed were in this limbo of between slavery and freedom (1: 249). This type of thinking, while was true, was insensitive due to the fact that, at least these freed slaves had some type of freedom, and the pride in knowing they are legally