FREE ESSAY ON LIFE OF EQUIANO

LIFE OF EQUIANO

Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa) was kidnapped from his African village at the age of
eleven. Shipped through the ardous Middle Passge of the Altantic Ocean. More than two
centuries later, this work is recognized not only as one of the first works written in
English by a former slave, but perhaps more important as the paradigm of the slave
narrative, a new literary genre. His life on the high seas, which included not only
travels throughout the Americas, Turkey and the Mediterranean; but also participation in
major naval battles during the French and Indian War, as well as in the seardh for a
northwest passage led by the Phipps expedition of 1772-1773. Equiano served the British
navy from 1858-1862 during the Seven Years War. In the hopes of being freed, he was
illegally sold to another man. He was robbed of the money he waved by two sailors when
they beat him pretty bad