Olaudah Equiano

Title: The term slave is characterized as a “person who is the property of and wholly subject to another’’ (Dictionary). However, it can also be extended and defined as the extraction of individual rights and their survival. Firstly, slavery coupled with the slave trade are both nostalgic tales in history which date from the 1800’s. During this time period, there were many old southern socio-historical events such as: the first African slaves, the toxic inequality between the whites and blacks,…

around other slaves’ feces, urine, vomit, and blood (The African Slave Trade). They were put in places that they couldn’t fully stand up and on many occasions the heat was unbearable and suffocating as was the smell (The African Slave Trade). Olaudah Equiano, a slave, wrote about his experience on the slave ship, the following is an excerpt. “I was soon put down under the decks, and there I received such a salutation in my nostrils as I had never experienced in my life; so that with the…

The first American colony Jamestown was established in 1607 by colonist from England. They settled the territory quickly and began to grow crops immediately. They were introduced to a new crop called tobacco. Shortly after this new crop was planted throughout Virginia, buyers realized how bitter the tobacco grown in that area was. Nobody wanted to buy the tobacco from Virginia anymore. Later on, Virginia was introduced to a new kind of tobacco shipped from Barbados, it was much sweeter and very…

Slavery in America was full of atrocities and hardships for slaves. Although all slaves were subject to cruel treatment, women in particular were subject to punishment and treatment different than that of male slaves. Whether or not women received worse treatment, they were much more susceptible to sexual abuse. Harriet Jacobs argued that women were worse off than men during slavery. Although Jacobs probably refers to female slaves, it is important to look at both slaves and the women who owned…

Marcus Rediker’s book The Slave Ship: A Human History has challenged the common idea that the true horrors of slavery happened after slavers sold the enslaved to various countries. He exposed the horrors of the middle voyage, specifically the long trek across the Atlantic, that is normally skipped over. Reviewing this perilous passage has allowed readers to learn and develop a better understanding of the diversity of cultures and the people that intertwined during the slave trade. It also sheds…

The features of “the Atlantic World” are part of what makes it important to history and is essential to how we remember “the Atlantic World” in it’s true glory. Novelist Michael Crichton once said that “If you don 't know history, then you don 't know anything. You are a leaf that doesn 't know it is part of a tree.” I believe that human beings are part of a tree of history that each and every one of us can be connected to in various ways. This connection is essential to how we understand…

Globalization is the exchange of people, ideas, and goods throughout the world. While there are many reasons why globalization has been a benefit to humans, there are also myriad reasons why it has been a tragedy. Globalization and the need to expand have led to wars, genocide, enslavement, exploitation, and erasure of cultures. A few good things have come from globalization, such as the advancements in science and technology, but the cost of these advancements was millions of lives lost or…

Colonies to Nation Jonathan Edwards (1703-1758), whose passionate sermons helped revive religious fervor during the “Great Awakening”（大觉醒运动, 1730s-1740s) Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790) Thomas Paine (1737-1809) Thomas Jefferson (1743-1826) Olaudah Equiano (1745?-1797) Philip Freneau (1752-1832) Phillis Wheatley (1753-1784) Hannah Webster Foster (1758-1840) Enlightenment and establishment of the nation Benjamin Franklin a second-generation immigrant of English descendent Writer,…

people or the “New Negroes” experiences while traveling and arriving in the New World. Piersen use vivid depictions to describe the “New Negroes” cultural shock when they arrived to the new world such as New England. For example, Piersen writes: “Olaudah Equiano,for example, recounted his awe of great sailing ships and navigational aids of the Atlantic Trade and his amazement on coming ashore to horse-drawn wagons, multistoried houses, representational paintings,clocks,and other exotic products…

A diaspora involves the dispersal of a group of people throughout the world. In history, there have been various causes of a diaspora: war, civil strife, famine, hostile political conditions, and external drives, such as the hope for better opportunities elsewhere. Drawn out of the need for labor, the Trans-Atlantic and Trans-Saharan slave trades were key players in the African Diaspora. Trans-Atlantic slave trade brought Western Africans across the Western hemisphere, while the Trans-Saharan…