12 Years A Slave Narrative Analysis

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
Twelve Years a Slave by Solomon Northup and edited by David Wilson mimics the accounts in Equiano's narrations as it depicts the tribulations of a black man sold into slavery. Both narratives employ artifacts such as scenery of the plantations, diction, metaphors and the use of other devices to convey their messages to the audience. This paper attempts to illustrate the use of artifacts to juxtapose events in an anecdote to depict a certain message.
Autobiographies have been used through time by slaves to outline the hardships that they faced at the hands of their masters. These narratives are often written in response to psychological, physical and spiritual torments that the writers faced. Slave narratives use rhetorical artifacts to expose the white man for his afflictions against the enslaved Africans. The depiction of struggles through written texts was used as a nonviolent way to express grievances, strength, and endurance. Slave narratives are synonymous with political rhetoric aimed at lobbying white men to end slavery or rally support from fellow black men. Equiano’s narrative can be seen as a politically inspired towards the British parliament to reconsider mending
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