Olaudah equiano | american literature | Alabama State University

Olaudah Equiano…DUE MONDAY

After you have written your answers, please delete the questions. Leaving the questions in the document will affect your Turnitin plagiarism score.

1. Briefly describe the culture in which Equiano lived before his capture; then 

summarize his capture and separation from his sister.

2. Describe Equiano’s reactions as he first encounters the slave ship and the white men

who are enslaving them (p. 379). What are the emotions that he feels? What fears 

does he have? How does he describe the countenances of those who were enslaved 

as he was? 

3. These few pages are, in some textbooks, subtitled “The Horrors of the Slave Ship.” 

List five “horrors” from pp. 380-382 that strike you as particularly dreadful.

4. Describe the procedure for selling the slaves describe on p. 383. (Do not forget this 

part of the question.) According to Equiano, what is the greatest horror of the selling 

of slaves? At the end of the chapter, he writes, “Surely, this is a new refinement in  

cruelty.” To what is he referring?

5. Describe Equiano’s friendship with Richard Baker, found at the end of chapter III on 

p. 385. Comment on at least one other thing that stands out to you from chapter III. 

6. The excerpt from chapter VII describes how Equiano gained his freedom. How did 

this come about? Who helped him? Respond to Equiano’s expression of the joy he 

felt at being free. Which images best express his feeling to you? Were you moved by 

this passage?

7. Explain one of the allusions from this passage – either his reference to Peter in prison 

or the reference to Elijah.