We have seen instances of Equiano indicating that he wishes for slavery to be more humane: this is most obviously displayed in Chapter 6, when Equiano states that a well-fed, well-treated slave will obviously be more productive than a malnourished, beaten one. We have also seen instances of Equiano indicating he wishes for the complete abolishment of slavery. This can be seen in several comments throughout the novel, which show his distaste for the system, and his personal objections. One such objection can be seen at the end of Chapter 4, where Equiano is trying to reason against his enslavement to a new master due to his abhorrent working conditions, having fought against the French for no pay, and having been baptized as a servant of the Christian God.
Now, although these two desires may seem to be in conflict, I think that there's a very simple answer to why Equiano gives off indications of two different beliefs. Equiano is an intelligent individual, and is aware that those that he is trying to convince to abolish slavery are very likely to be in support of it by default; such an audience would be incredibly unreceptive to a clear argument to abolish slavery, especially from a black man. By making logical arguments against the effectiveness of slavery from the perspective of a "fellow countryman," Equiano is able to subtly imprint his desire for slavery to be abolished, from musings and statements that his audience can agree with on an individual basis.
In that regard, Equiano's goal is to abolish slavery, but his publicized intent is to argue against slavery in all its facets.
I ultimately agree with you that Equiano's larger goal is to abolish slavery, even though he may not say so specifically. From how excited he is to earn his freedom, I think that it's reasonable to assume that he would like to see the institution of slavery destroyed.
ReplyDeleteWell said. I totally agree with and think that Equiano makes an argument for slaves to be treated more kindly as a way of easing his intended audience into eventually agreeing to abolish slavery. He knows that many people will defend slavery so instead of directly arguing against it, he breaks his argument into more agreeable pieces.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Equiano's stance on slavery was a bit unclear to me as I was reading, I do understand that his overall opinions were based on abolishing slavery. I did not that Equiano couldn't not take a complete board stance on slavery due to the types of people on his subscriber list. Equiano ultimately did not want to anger his readers and he definitely did not want to anger the high class citizens on his subscriber list.
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