Olaudah Equiano In The Interesting Narrative Northup's 12 Years A Slave

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Olaudah Equiano was a former slave born in what is now modern-day Nigeria. He was captured as a small boy and sold to the West Indies by slave traders. Most of Equiano’s slave life was spent serving masters in slave ships and on the navy vessels of British merchants. One of the slave masters gave Equiano the name Gustavas Vassa. He used this name until the publishing of his autobiography which he opted to use his African name. After years of service at sea, Equiano was bought by a merchant from Philadelphia where he served as a clerk. Equiano was prudent enough in his works and was given the privilege to partake in his businesses where he was able to save enough money to buy his freedom. Equiano in his autobiography The Interesting Narrative…show more content…
Northup like Equiano was a free man until he was abducted and thrown into a slave pen in Washington D.C. Northup is not shy in depicting his afflictions and abuse by a slave master known as Edwin Epps. He vividly narrates how he was tortured with his fellow black men. Northup mentions his captor, the slave pen he was kept in and the gruesome tribulations he had to go through. In depicting his experiences, Northup may have knowingly or obliviously stirred up the political tension. Twelve Years a Slave puts an evil face on the white slave traders but also stresses that perseverance eventually triumphs over abuse. Northup’s heart-wrenching journey had a loud political tone among black men and white men who were slave sympathizers. In the Twelve Years a Slave movie, Northup was known as “Platt” is defrauded by two white men who he had considered allies. They end up poisoning Northup and selling him into slavery, a narration which may have been used by Northup to insinuate that white men cannot be…show more content…
Both narratives are aimed at convincing the white oppressors the need for freedom. The first similarity is in the abduction of both Northup and Equiano. Northup is abducted and poisoned by two white men while Equiano was kidnapped as a child and forcefully ferried to the West Indies. In Twelve Years a Slave, Northup depicts the suffering of slaves in the slave pens and other forms of brutality. Equiano in his autobiography illustrates how fellow Africans had to jump from the ship due to the cruelty of the masters. At the epitome of both narrations, Northup and Equiano are free men. At one point each of the narratives portrays the Whiteman as an empathetic being. Thomas Clarkson and Rev. Dr. Baker were pivotal for Equiano to achieve his quest for attaining civilization finally. William Ford rescued Northup from Tibets while Bass was instrumental in Northup’s escape. The two slave narratives are written in the omnipresent and omniscient writer. The narrations subtly try to provide a hint that the human race is capable of a greater
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