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6 years ago

783 words

Dominic Schillace

ENG 302

Pr. Kappes

The concept of Schomburg Center’s photograph of a woman and child, and The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, show similarities in support of the theme of the text and picture. Both the authors show the treatment of slaves was worse than that of livestock, but then painted a totally different picture opposite to the reality of slavery. The credibility of slaves were diminished and undermined by white Eurocentric viewpoints. Equiano put on a narrative to hide his true identity in order to sell his book to the eyes of the rapacious white people.

The illustration the picture shows how the south tried to romanticize slavery as an ideal element of the United States. The picture shows a slave holding her master’s child and standing behind her is the slave owner’s wife; this piece of work is illustrated with a soft, light tone and illuminates the idea of happiness amongst a slave. The artist of the time period is shedding light on slavery to make it seem an appealing idea; even though slavery was one of the most significant abominations in American history. The slave smiles while feeding what looks like a goat and everything seems to be sunshine and happiness. How can slavery be viewed as a happy or delightful phenomenon image as depicted in this image, when the true darkness of slavery is being blinded by the light the south is casting to the world.  The white woman is seen as having a blank face while the slave is the happy one, and even the child has an angelic look and stature. Both women in the picture are dressed elegantly as there are no markings shown on the slave and she seems to be shown in dressed as though she were a white woman.

Equiano’s Narrative and the picture both attempt to sugar coat slavery as a whole; the rich white people that owned slaves wanted to create a false image to the world to enlighten any burden imposed on them. Equiano is forced to put on a false identity in order to fit the white washed narrative of the European ideology; Equiano needed sales to put food on the table for himself and his children so he created a double consciousness to please his audience. In the narrative Vincent Caretta “He published his first edition of the narrative in March 1789, establishing his dual identity as Olaudah Equiano/Gustavus Vassa,” however, later “Using his legal name Gustavus Vassa, Equiano married an Englishwoman…”(10) This conveys the image Equiano must identify solely as an African native surviving the gruesome journey of slavery, even though he was born in South Carolina. He had to uphold a white washed image of himself in order to make a living off of selling his books.

Equiano’s literary achievements were highly underestimated by Europeans even though he was a brilliant writer; the idea a black writer in that time period as well literate as Equiano was, did not fit the Eurocentric narrative which lead to them viewing Equiano as lesser along with the racist atmosphere. A future subscriber of Equiano, Reverend Robert Boucher Nikkols, writes in a letter regarding Francis Williams and Phillis Wheately, “for they represent the negroes as little removed above the monkey, or the oran-outang, with regard to intellects… I never heard of poems by a monkey or of Latin odes by an oran-outang.”(12) Even Equiano’s subscribers showed absolutely no respect or remorse to these brave astound English writers and dismissing their credibility to their skin color. They bashed them for their literary talent and viewed them only slightly above primates using disgusting languages to describe these English geniuses.

How can the south have continued to romanticize slavery after all the accounts of horrific and diabolical scenery slavery displays. One of the most striking statements of Equiano’s narrative was when he writes, “In the eyes of another non-European who has encountered the Old World, Equiano appears to be morally whiter than whites.”(20) This is ironic since these rich European white men were these supposed higher beings, but someone of color was actually a more pure person than them. Equiano has faced many tragedies and horrors in life and still remains true to himself even though he “is a stranger in a strange land.”(20)

 

Work Cited

Equiano, Olaudah. “Introduction.” The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano. London: Equiano, 1794. Print.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Photographs and Prints Division, The New York Public Library. “Idealization of the South.” The New York Public Library Digital Collections. http://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dc-492d-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99

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