Man’s Inalienable Right Under God And Within A Republic
Man’s Inalienable Right Under God And Within A Republic
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African” written by himself, explores the life of a native-born African in pursuit of a life, liberty and freedom in the English world. For the most part the narrative’s purpose was to impress a formidable audience: influential British officials. In chapter twelve of the narrative, he put forth two impressive arguments: the first economic rationale and the second moral duty. Equiano’s paramount argument petitioned Christians by calling on the scriptures as evidence in the immediate necessity to abolish slavery and simultaneously called in question the ideology set forth in republicanism and the denial thereof to victims of slavery.
Olaudah Equiano’s freedom ended as a young boy when his fellow countrymen kidnapped and sold him into slavery. In his report of the Middle Passage Equiano gave his first impressions of the English control - death of the body as well as the spirit. This initial voyage ended in Barbados. After a short time Equiano boards a ship headed for an English colony of Virginia, where he would spend the next seven years as a slave owned by Pascal. During these seven years, he educated himself, traveled with Pascal in the Royal Navy, and converted to Christianity. Subsequently he purchased his freedom and in 1789 and shortly after wrote his memoirs. His memoirs realized its ultimate purpose in 1797 with the abolition of the English slave trade.
The memoirs reached varied audiences, initially composed of American, European, and religiously motivated abolitionists but targeted the deliberators in favor of slavery abolishment within the British government. His composition of the narrative employed a strategy of social desirability with an indication of hypocrisy that targeted the concept of humanity, the evolution of liberty and the ideals of civilization. This strategy indirectly attacked its readers with humility that in turn created guilt in its captive audience.
According to one side of the issue, economic rationale appealed to government officials in the government’s quest to acquire a large market for European products. Equiano assured the officials with the premises that African commerce “is trading upon safe grounds” and “commercial intercourse with Africa opens an inexhaustible source of wealth to the manufacturing interests of Great Britain”; two equally powerful assumptions put forth by an African native...