What role does Equiano's religion play in his life? How do his beliefs shift throughout his life? Indeed, these Europeans are whom Equiano is subtly contrasting his African brethren with after comparing the heroic and moral Eboe with the bloodthirsty and power-hungry Europeans, it is no question which of the two is actually more civilized. Equiano is also keen to compare them to the Jews, thus 'legitimizing' them in the eyes of his European readers. They even believed in one Creator, although they countenanced the spirit world more than Europeans did. This lifestyle produced healthy and hearty individuals, and "cheerfulness and affability are two of the leading characteristics of our nation" (38). The most conspicuous trait of these Africans was their emphasis on cleanliness. The arts and music were important to them. Their government was a council that decided things in a democratic fashion. They had strict gender roles that created social order. They only enslaved criminals or prisoners of war. He calls attention to their morals and their simple, unassuming manners. How does Equiano depict his African brethren? What is the reason for this depiction?Įquiano paints a very positive portrait of the Eboe people of whom he claims to be descended.
Free blacks lived in a precarious middle ground between slavery and freedom. Read wanted to punish Equiano for getting into a fight with his slave Equiano was shocked that the man did not respect his status as an independent individual, and that he was to be "flogged round the town, without judge or jury" (139). When white men refused to pay him for the goods they purchased of him, there was no way to find redress. When Equiano achieves the status of a free black, he encounters the same thing. There were no courts that would hear them, and no law enforcement that would protect their assets. Their freedom was only nominal, and they lived in fear of re-enslavement or constant abuses to their person and liberty. Equiano wrote that "hitherto I had thought only slavery dreadful but the state of a free negro appeared to me now equally so at least" (122). Clipson protested virulently but was given no hearing and was forced onto the captain's ship despite his physical evidence of freedom. Clipson was free, but was accosted by a Bermuda captain who claimed Clipson was a slave and that he had orders to take him to Jamaica. In the West Indies, he met a free black named Joseph Clipson whose story formed the basis for his realization. Several times in the Narrative, Equiano presents his belief that free blacks often suffered worse than slaves. What evidence does Equiano provide to support his claim that free blacks had more difficulties than slaves did?
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