Olaudah Equiano

Comprehension Check Questions:
For what crimes were slaves punished? And what was the punishment?
Slaves were punished for stealing fish. Their punishment was to be flogged(whipped).

Critical Thinking Questions:
Interpret: Why does Equiano blame the illness aboard the ship on the “improvident avarice” of the traders?
Equiano blames the traders because they overlooked the capacity of people who could stay in such a little space. Their greed pushed them to think that the more people their were on board, the more money that came their way.

Support from the text: How can you tell that Equiano has a great zest for life despite his assertion that he wanted to die?
His willingness to speak out for what he thought was right and waiting for that day of freedom to shine upon him and his fellow people(slaves).

Infer: What does this passage reveal about the author?
Through the way he speaks, you can tell that he is educated and shows pride in what he has accomplshed for himself. He is astonished by everything he saw because he is in a new surroundung. He has a strong sense of character because he went through a lot due to his protest against slavery.

Draw conclusion: Explain what a variety of languages indicates about the slave trade.
Slavery was diverse. It was integrated among different countries.

Thematic Focus: When one culture dominates another, what troubles might society face?
There are clashes in communication through language, culture, religious beliefs and much more that humans find the need to argue and disagree on.

Identify:
-Genre: a style of expressing yourself in writing
Example- Slave literature is an autobiography that expresses the struggles that slaves went through and what they had to endure.

-Symbolism: the practice of representing things by symbols, or of investing things with a symbolic meaning or character
Example-"countrymen who were chained together ... somehow made through the nettings and jumped into the sea" They gave up hope of being free

-Imagery: the ability to form mental images of things or events
Example-"so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself"

-Plot: the plan, scheme, or main story of a literary or dramatic work, as a play, novel, or short story
Example- protest against slavery

-Sequence of events: the order in which things happen
Example-Got on board, went under deck, crowded together, sickness,death, chaos

-Characters: A distinguishing feature or attribute, as of an individual, group, or category
Example-"Every circumstance I met with served only to render my state more painful, and heighten my apprehensions, and my opinion of the cruelty of the whites."
He grew stronger through his determination to show what he could rise above.

-Setting: the surroundings or environment of anything
Example-"we were all put under deck"

-Conflicts (internal/external): opposition between characters or forces in a work of drama or fiction, especially opposition that motivates or shapes the action of the plot
Example-"stench of the hold while we were on the coast was so in tolerably loathsome, that it was dangerous to remain there for any time, and some of us had been permitted to stay on the deck for the fresh air", "that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died, thus falling victims to the improvident avarice, as I may call it, of their purchasers"
they were suffocated daily by harsh odors.

-Point of View: a mental position from which things are viewed
Example-"But this disappointment was the least of my sorrow." Equiano

Vocabulary:

Loathsome (adj.)- arousing intense dislike and disgust

Pestilential (adj)- likely to cause disease

Copious: (adj)- plentiful; abundant

Improvident (adj)- shortsighted; failing to provide for the future

Avarice (n)- greed for riches

Apprehensions (n)- feeling of anxiety or fear that something bad or unpleasant will happen; taking of a criminal into custody, the power or ability to grasp the importance, significance or meaning of something

Procured (v)- to obtain something, especially by effort, to provide somebody for prostitution

Dejected (adj)- feeling or showing sadness and lack of hope, especially because of disappointment

Accursed (adj)- enduring the effects of a curse; horrible or hateful

Quadrant (n)- a 90 degree arc representing one fourth of the circumference of a circle. The area bounded by a quadrant and the two perpendicular lines that connect it to the center of the circle.

Kindred (adj)- close to somebody or something else because of similar qualities or interests. Related to somebody by blood. (n) closeness to somebody not related to you by blood based, e.g. on similarity of character or interest. Relationship by blood, or less strictly by marriage