Part II – Free writing, O. E. ch. 1

Olaudah’s introduction is honest, upfront and raw, yet somehow also contains at least a veil of objectivity. I love this type of writing even if the particular writing style and vocabulary takes a little while to get used too. My favorite line in chapter one is this, “I… offer here the history of neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant”, basically he is saying that he’s human and this helps lend to the overall feeling that this account is a humanizing account partially meant to help make colored men and women all over the world at the time gain basic human rights (life, liberty, etc). This humanizing story reminds me of this quote from Shakespeare: Shylock: I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes? Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means, warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, do we not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you in that. The Merchant Of Venice Act 3, scene 1, 58–68 This play and many other of Shakespeare’s works, have more to do with Olaudah’s narrative then is able to be seen at first glance. Many of Shakespeare’s plays incorporated a high level of intellectual satire, contrasting the English’s “civilized” mindset with their actions. For instance The Merchant Of Venice, despite portraying Shylock as a Jew that fulfilled every stereotype of the time, also include the above quote who’s sentiment, that a human is a human is a human, is still the driving factor in most (if not all) rights movements. A big part of England was, and still is, its religion. Olaudah appeals to that on page 51, “the native believe that there is one Creator of all things”, the fact that some tribes incorporated mono-theistic beliefs into their religion was most likely very surprising to many reading his narrative when it first came out and most likely helped make inroads for the abolition movement in England and across the world. I just thought it needed to be mentioned that religion did play a part in both the initial dehumanization of Caribbean, African, South American, and North American peoples and also in the re-humanization (if that is a word) years later.