Life Aboard the Slave Ship
This author described the ship as so crowded that enslaved Africans could "scarcely have room to turn".
Who is Olaudah Equiano?
The merchant writes that the slave trade was necessary for the success of this part of the British Empire.
What is the West Indian sugar colonies (or plantations)?
Equiano's tone throughout the passage can BEST be described as this.
What is horrified, outraged, sorrowful, confused?
Equiano's experience would represent the viewpoint or perspective of this group of people.
Who are the enslaved Africans or victims of slave trade?
This is one of the African Tribes who sold fellow Africans to the Europeans. Their name is also mentioned in the novel, Copper Sun.
Who are the Ashanti Tribe?
According to Equiano, this caused the air in the hold to become "unfit for respiration".
What are the heat, closeness, and loathsome smells?
According to the merchant, enslaved African were often captured this way.
What is by being prisoners of war, criminals, or debtors sold by their own people?
The merchant's calm and logical tone wants to convince readers through this type of reasoning.
What is economic or moral justification?
The merchant's account represents the viewpoint of this group.
Who are European slave traders, or supporters of slave trade?
This is the prison that captured Africans were held in before they were taken on the ship.
What is Cape Coast Castle, or "The Door of No Return"?
Equiano compared being handled and inspected by the crew to being in a "world of bad spirits", showing his sense of this emotion.
What is fear or horror?
According to the merchant, slave trade helped to spread this European religion.
What is Christianity?
Equiano's main purpose in writing his narrative was to reveal this truth about slavery.
What is the dehumanization, inhumanity and brutality of the slave trade?
Both Equiano and the merchant describe the Middle Passage, but their interpretations differ because of this.
What is their different perspectives, or their roles in the trade?
This is the African woman on the slave ship who befriends Amari and helps her to survive the Middle Passage
Who is Efi?
The merchant claimed that the deaths during the voyage did not only happen during slave trade, comparing them to this.
What are dangers that are common to all sea voyages?
Equiano's narrative challenges the merchant's idea that slave trade "civilized" Africans by showing this opposite reality.
What is the dehumanizing treatment, cruelty and suffering caused by the enslavement?
The merchant's purpose was to defend slave trade against this growing movement.
What is the abolitionist (anti-slavery) movement?
The merchant justifies slavery by stating that it was necessary for Britain's prosperity; Equiano shows that it lead to this instead.
What is suffering, death, dehumanization, or moral corruption?
This movement gained momentum partly because of first-hand accounts like Equiano's and Omar Ibn Said's, which exposed the horrors of the Middle Passage.
What is the Abolitionist Movement, or the fight to end slavery?
While Equiano described the cruelty and suffering, the merchant insisted that the crew "did their utmost" to do this.
What is preserve their valuable cargo (protect the enslaved peoples' lives) for profit?
The merchant described slavery as "mutually beneficial", but Equiano's story exposes this false narrative.
What is that slave trade helped to improve the lives of Africans
Both authors want to influence readers, but while Equiano appeals to emotion, the merchant appeals primarily to this.
What is economics, money, self-interest?
By comparing the two texts, readers can see how historical narratives are shaped by this factor.
What is the author's perspective, viewpoint, or bias?
This term is used to describe a repeated word or symbol in a piece of literature. In Copper Sun, it is the sun.
What is motif?