Comparative Analysis Of Slave Narratives By Olaudah Equiano And Mary Prince

Slave narratives are sentimental tools used to showcase the varying degrees of a slave’s relationship with slavery. Despite the fact that slave narratives are highly crafted and edited, the value of it still remains. It is religiously rich and requires an exhaustive amount of empathy and takes a lot of one’s imaginative capabilities to process slavery. For the individuals who are slave abolitionist and a part of anti-slave societies, it is difficult to illuminate any aspect connected to slavery because it is hard for human being to fathom such a life of brutality.

One of the first slave narrative published was by a male slave by the name of Olaudah Equiano. He was born in the year 1745 modern day Nigeria and he published his narrative, ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano’ in the year 1789. Similarly, Mary Prince was the first African American women to publish an autobiography in the United Kingdom. She was born into an enslaved family in 1788 and she published her narrative, ‘The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave’, in 1831. Moreover, she was also the first female to put forth an anti-slavery petition to the parliament. Both narratives were significant for abolishing slavery in the United Kingdom because each of them gave a different perspective on slavery. There were a couple of similarities between the two authors, yet a number of notable differences. This essay is an attempt to compare and contrast the slave experience of Equiano and Prince and see how gender affects their narratives.

One of the notable similarities between the two narratives is that Equiano and Prince were both were ripped away from family and loved ones. At the mere age of eleven, Equiano and his sister were kidnapped by local slaveholders and placed on a slave ship to cross the Atlantic to the Caribbean. He was then separated from his sister when they were sold to different families.

Comparably, Prince was split from her family when she had to relocate to work for another family, and then was separated again when she and her younger sister were sold at a slave auction at the age of ten. The readers can see that both Equiano and Prince were not given the opportunity to live a lifestyle where they had secure family around them. One can never overcoming the soreness and agonizing pain of being ripped away from the ones they love.

Duties

One of the many aspects that separated the two slaves was the tasks that were assigned to complete and what is expected of them. Traditional gender roles expect the men to be strong, and therefore are typically given tasks of manual labor. Women on the other hand are seen as creatures who are delicate and not suitable for physical work. As a result, they are typically given household duties such as, cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children. Prince spent majority of her life working to serve her master and mistresses at home as opposed to working in the field. When she was younger, she babysat the children of the family she was working for, which was not common for male slaves to do. Because Prince spent much of her time with them, she developed a deep connection with the children and vise versa. It pained both Prince and the children when she was sold to another master and had to part ways with them. On the contrary, Equiano’s experience as a slave was different. He spent his time traveling on a ship with Michael Pascal, who was a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, and was able learn how to navigate through the sea. One of his duties included to aid the crew when a battle occurred by fetching gunpowder into position.

Another significant difference between Equiano and Prince was the education they gained as a slave. Equiano’s master saw potential in him and shipped him to England to obtain a basic education. This opened up the door for many opportunities for him, such as becoming a clerk and saving up a sufficient amount of money to buy his freedom from Quaker Robert King. On the contrary, Prince was not given the opportunity to obtain a proper basic education like Equiano did. In her early years, she was taught letters from the alphabet and how to spell small words from Miss Fanny, who was the daughter of her master. Her circumstance did not allow her to enhance the education that she was capable of getting. Most of the knowledge Prince acquired was mostly through lived experience and observations. While Equiano was able to write his own narrative, Prince did not have experience to do the same. She narrated her story to Thoman Pringle, who was the secretary of the of the Anti-slavery Society in the United Kingdom. But most importantly, she was not able to buy her freedom.

Religion

Religion plays a major role in Equiano’s narrative. He begin his narrative discussing how religion was perceived in his tribe. He reported that in his early religious life, he was conscious that there was one Creator who lives in the sun and governs events like captivity or death. Touched more on the notion of tribal honor and unity than to personal salvation. He also mentioned that souls are not destroyed but is passed down to the next generation. In 1759, he adopts Christianity at the age of 14, which became a significant concept in his life. He uses his faith to assist him in coping with the feelings of dehumanization attributed to slavery. For Equiano and Prince, death was seen as a type of freedom compared to the persecuted life they lived.

There is a drastic difference in the way female slaves perceived their master versus the way male slaves pierced their master. For female slaves, there is this constant fear instilled in them for the masters or the surrounding men raping the female slaves and in some cases, impregnating them. If the slave encounters a mishap and became pregnant with the master’s child, then the mistress naturally becomes angry and transfers the negative energy to the slave by abusing and maltreatmenting her. Additionally, pregnant women slaves were not exempted from doing certain strenuous tasks, but rather, were expected to complete their normal routine. In her narrative, she describes the horrific death of a fellow pregnant slave, Hetty, to demonstrate the brutal outcome of the actions of her master.

There is also a contrast in the way the audience reads each of the narrative. When reading Prince’s narrative, the readers wonder is she is raped, impregnated, and abused while pregnant by her master and other men. On the other hand, these considerations do not cross the reader's mind at all when reading Equiano’s narrative. Male slaves did not experience the same punishment the female slaves endure; the abuse the men suffered through was mostly physical. Some of the masters treated Equiano as a son while others did not. In this regard, the slave experience of Prince was different was to Equiano's experience due to their gender.

Notwithstanding the gender differences, both authors set the stage of their narratives so vividly for their readers; easy to comprehend yet dolorous on the soul. The beginning of their narratives revealed that they were torn away from families at a young age and how that affected them. On multiple occasions, both slaves longed for death and stated that is was better than what they were enduring. There were great differences between the two slaves. Equiano was able to obtain an education and take on the profession of a clerk. As a result, he was able to buy his freedom, a major milestone that Prince was not able to do. Due to traditional gender roles, Equiano and Prince were appointed different jobs to do for the master. Both slaves illustrated different forms of abuse that they witnessed in their lifetime. All in all, the key point of the two slave narratives is that they composed their them to showcase the inhumane system of slavery and to advocate for the United Kingdom to prohibit this practice.