Olaudah Equiano
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.
