Olaudah Equiano Book Report

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Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography written in London, England in 1789 intended for the European Christians describes his experiences of how he was captured and then sold into slavery. The slave trade occurred from the 16th to the 19th centuries, during which Equiano was captured and then sold multiple times. The slave trade was a gruesome and terrible experience for many slaves, but there were also some slaves that were not treated as harshly as others. Equiano’s life on the slave ship was horrific, but while on land in Africa his owners treated him very nicely and you would never know that he was a slave in the slave trade. Slaves in the Atlantic Slave Trade were treated in a non-humane way that should have been illegal and that nobody should have ever had to go through. Equiano was involved in this horrendous event and his experiences are comparable to…show more content…
He makes valid and believable statements that lead readers to believe he is an accurate source of information. Although most parts of his autobiography do seem believable, there is a possibility that some parts could have been slightly exaggerated so he could get his point across to readers that the slave trade was an actual event and that it was very terrifying. All of his experiences described seem very real and believable except for when he is talking about when he was sold to a new owner and he states “The next day I was washed and perfumed” (Equiano, p702). The way these owners treated Equiano does seem a little unbelievable due to the fact that he was treated so harshly once he got on the slave ship and it makes the readers think that the slave trade was not as bad as it actually was. Although at first it does seem unbelievable, it is very possible some of the owners were nicer than others. Overall though, the author is a credible source of valid information for the Atlantic slave

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