Rhetorical Devices In The Life Of Olaudah Equiano

Within all major societies of the world exists a power struggle between the majority and the minority, the disenfranchised and the coddled. But no power struggle has achieved the same notoriety as the black slave’s plight in the Western world. From England to the West Indies and the Americas, black slaves suffered insurmountable trauma and subjugation. One of these slaves, Olaudah Equiano, recounts his experiences, both triumphant and pitiful, within the Americas and England to affect change in his audience and in the world. In his The Life of Olaudah Equiano, he utilizes specific rhetorical strategies to affect this change and to accomplish his goal. With his inclusion of himself as an irreplaceable character, his analysis of the hypocrisy of Christian slavers, and his analysis of the economic benefits of well-treated slaves, Equiano crafts his autobiography as a work of rhetoric that rivals any proponent of the slave trade.

Born around 1745, Equiano lived a relatively noble childhood in his village of Essaka until local raiders captured him and sold him, beginning his lifelong struggle against slavery. (Edwards 44) As his expeditions and experiences with his masters began to amass, his anti-slavery rhetoric developed as well. By the 1780’s, Equiano “had become deeply involved in the politics of the black people, championing their cause” by forging relationships with white abolitionists such as Granville Sharp and by advocating for the publicizing of atrocities inflicted on slaves (Mtubani 90). Equiano, because of his unfortunate upheaval into the throes of slavery as a child, quickly became much more than a historical individual; he became a pivotal champion for the rights of his people as freemen and as