What was Equiano’s attitude regarding his life in the British Navy? According to Wikipedia, “Olaudah Equiano (1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved as a child in Africa, he was taken to the Caribbean and sold as a slave to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more but purchased his freedom in 1766.” When Equiano was only eleven years old he and his sister were at their home by themselves while the adults were out working, which was common. Not long after during that exact same day some men came into their home, took them separated Equiano from his sister, like millions of other slaves, and sold them into slavery. As I said in a much earlier essay, “Back then, slavery was very very wrong. According to Merriam-Webster, slavery means “the state of being a slave.” According to Merriam-Webster, a slave is “a person who is the legal property of another and is forced to obey them.” That means that somebody owns another person (that person is the other person’s property) and forces him to do his bidding (work for him).The slave people were Black people. People captured these black people for slaves. I do not know why, but I think that it was just that either the whites were just evil evil men, or the whites captured the blacks because they thought that the blacks were ‘animals’. I mean, just because blacks have different skin color or they have different religious beliefs does not mean that they are of any less importance than the whites. People capturing people and forcing them to work as slaves when they have done nothing wrong is just wrong. The black African people have been peaceful for years. But then, Americans came in and captured the blacks and forced them to work as slaves. All men are created equal, and yet, the Americans were treating the Africans like animals. It is a miracle that slavery is now abolished (no more) to this day.” Slavery was very, very terrible.

So, back to the topic question, what was Equiano’s attitude regarding his life in the British Navy? I think I can answer this question in one word. Equiano’s attitude regarding his life in the British Navy was actually positive. Even I was surprised by this answer. What the funny thing was that when he saw the sight of the sailors of the British Navy, he thought that they were going to eat him. However, he asked somebody who was there with him if they were going to eat him and he said that they were not going to eat him. So, he got over that fear, thankfully. He soon got used to life out on the sea and loved his British Navy life. He also learned the English and soon became not a slave, but an English man. He just loved his life on the sea. I am so thankful that slavery does not exist any more.