Journal 19

Nika Bogoslovsky
10/26/07
Equiano

"...the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty..."

Summary:

This is a small bit of an autobiography written by Olaudah Equino. He starts out with the brief history of his direct family, where he came from, what happened to his family and how he came to America. He writes about his experiences during the middle passage, his slave days and how he earned his freedom.

Response:

Unlike Wheatley, I think Equiano had less to worry about when it came down to writing about white people. Wheatley was very careful and sly with her remarks towards white people and what she stood up for, whereas Equiano more openly talks directly against them. One obvious reason why this is probably true is because Equiano is a male and Wheatley a female. Being black then didn't hold too much authority but being black and a woman was just impossible, Whatley would have gotten in more trouble than Equiano had she written like he did. Another reason why Wheatley's writing is less aggressive than Equiano's might be because of the experiences they each went through. While neither situation was desirable, I think Wheatley was better off and she was probably very great full for it; she was in a providing house with people who encouraged and funded her education. I don't think she would have wanted to write anything too troublesome, being a devout Christian, she was probably thankful for what she was handed. Granted, what she had would never be enough to compensate so that's why she had to write what she did. Equiano, on the other hand, sounds like he had a harder time with the middle passage and his slave owners; he was probably filled with more anger, having to write more openly.