(178).
2. The letters, reviews, and list of subscribers at the beginning are there to confirm the veracity of the authorÆs story and to show the extent of his appeals on behalf of abolishing slavery.
3. I believe his account of the manners and customs of his homeland is an attempt to humanize slaves to the people who refuse to see them as humans; by his account, his native people have many of the same propensities as the whites who enslaved them.
4. His ônation of dancersö expresses the joie de vivre of his people, revealing their spirit.
5. The ironies of the different forms of slavery are that first, Equiano does not appear to have a choice between being a slave and being freeùjust different ways of being a slave; and second, that although slavery is done differently in different places, it is really just the same thing in a different guise.
6. Equiano perceives Christianity as a tremendous thing. His being born again was a turning point in his life; he says of the experience, ôThese heavenly moments were really as life to the deadö (144). Race figures in because Christianity does not judge people by their race. The adoption of Christianity by a slave indicates that Christianity is a nonbiased religion and that slavery can only enslave people physically, not spiritually.
7. EquianoÆs employing literacy and Christianity in his call for abolition is ironic because most slaves were neither literate nor Christian. They were not given the opportunity. It is also ironic because slave traders believed slaves were not capable of literacy or interested in Christianity.
8. Throughout the book, Equiano makes use of the narrative voice to describe the horrors and injustices of slavery, commenting on how much he would like it abolished. Most particularly, though, in Chapter 12, he makes a pointed case against the slave trade, in which he details all of the reasons that it simply does not make good sense. Also, i...