Compare And Contrast Equiano And Phillis Wheatley

One of the most crucial part of history in United States history is Slavery. Slavery began in year 1619 in the United States of America. Slaves were captured and forcefully brought into the United States from different parts of Africa in order to toil for various plantation owners. This atrocious practice developed because of Greed and the desperate wickedness of the human heart. Slavery lasted until 1865 when the 13 Amendment officially abolished it. However, the abolition of slavery was a long fought battle that seemed to have no end. Two of the most important, effective instruments for the abolitionist cause were Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley. Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley shared a lot of things in common, some examples are,

Also, their various writings had the opportunity to open people's eye towards the cruelty of slavery which contributed to the abolition of slavery. Most Slaves could not read or write because education was not an available resource to them at that time and English was not their language. Olaudah Equiano and Phillis Wheatley proved that slaves had the ability to learn like any other human being because they were able to learn proper English and educate themselves although being enslaved. For example, line 2-10 of Phillis Wheatley states that she was able to attain the English language in a span of sixteen months to such a degree that she was able to read the most difficult parts of the sacred writings. Olaudah Equiano was an effective instrument for the abolitionist cause because his writing painted a clear picture in people's mind of the extreme cruelty that slaves faced at the hands of the europeans. Some of the examples from the text that painted a clear picture of the extreme cruelty of the europeans were Equiano’s depiction of the middle passage ( page 267-268) and Equiano’s description of the female slave who wore an iron muzzle which denied her ability to communicate verbally and eat or drink (page 270, line