"Narrative Life of Oloudah Equiano" and "Of the Plymouth" Questions

1. Equiano's account of his journey to the New World compares with the narrative of William Bradford in "Of the Plymouth" because they both were faced with hardships and adversities. Bradford had a rough voyage and then once he did reach land it just more difficult. on his journey he was "...met with many fierce storms, with which the ship was shrewdy shaken..." and violent winds. After a tiresome journey, they reached reached land. But only to find nothing. There were no inns to refresh their worn bodies, no forends to welcome them, and no house to seek shelter. Just like Bradford, Equiano's journey wasn't any better, if not worse. Hundreds of his fellow Africans were chained down to pieces of wood and were so closely packed together, they could hardly move. Luckily Equiano was young so he had the privilege to go to the deck and get fresh air. this little child had to see his people be treated horribly and live in miserable conditions. there were loathsome smells and suffocation from the crowded ship, heat, and the air became unbreathable. To make matters even worse, they had to live in their own flith. the necessary tubs were never emptied and they weren't allowed to remove their chains so they did everything in thier small spot. The journeys for both people wasn't easy and both of them had to have a strong will to just live through it in the hopes of reaching somewhere better.

2. The Europeans attitude and behavior towards the Africans was prejudiced and unjust. They treated the Africans like cargo on a ship. As if they were just objects waiting to be sold. The whites treated the blacks in a inhumane manner by providing sparse food and unsanitary conditions. Europeans considered the Africans to be parcels off of which they would profit from. Furthermore, the Europeans considered themselves to be better than the Africans so they treated them miserably and cruelly.

3. Some of the Africans in the selection preferred death over slavery for a few reasons. Firsty, they didnt want to live in the miserbale conditions that the europeans provided them. they couldn't take the horrid ship conditions and would rather face death than live like that and lose their dignity. secondly, they didn't know what to expect when they reached land. the Africans thought they were going to "be eaten by these ugly men". the fear of not knowing what will happen next made them prefer death over slavery since they already were in such a terrible state.