The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano,...

I have chosen to focus my research around slaves being treated as sub-humans in the Middle Passage. After reading the works of James Sweet and Katrina Thompson, it is evident that the slaves were treated as commodities, rather than human beings. My research will center on the book The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano, in which the author recounts his experience as a slave going through the Middle Passage. Other works such as Ring Shout, Wheel About The Racial Politics of Music and Dance in North American Slavery, by Katrina Thompson, and Domingos à lvares, African Healing, and the Intellectual History of the Atlantic World, by James Sweet, can help us garner a deeper insight as to the experiences of Olaudah Equiano by analyzing similar instances from a different rhetorical standpoint. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is a particularly interesting object because it is primary, in that he is telling us, in the first person, about his own experiences. He was a slave in Virginia for a short period of time, but the majority of Equiano s life as a slave was serving the captains of slave ships and British navy vessels. Following his life journey can allow us to trace his experiences and thoughts that may not be reported by the conductors of the slave trade--where the majority of information on the slave trade comes from. Referring to his transatlantic voyage to Virginia to become a slave, Equiano notes that â€Å"[the