My Experience Reading Equiano

 My experience of reading Equiano so far has been fine. It takes more time than usual to read it because the language in it is not like the language in most books I read and it sometimes gets a bit confusing. I do find the book interesting, so I do like reading it though. I have never read about or even seen online the experience of extremely young Africans in European slavery like Equiano during the third/fourth chapter. Something I found unexpected was about how slavery worked within Africa. I have been conditioned to think that slavery means that a person has absolutely no rights and is treated horribly by their masters. However, in Africa, Equiano says that slaves are essentially just workers who are in a lower social class. They have rights, eat normal food, and are treated well by their masters, not to an equal extent compared to free people, but it is not as bad as I would think if I did not read the story.​​ In Europe, his life is also different than I would have imagined. He makes a white friend, Dick, and he is treated relatively well by his masters, as they like him. I was confused on why this was the case as it goes against my preconception of what European slavery is and I think that the kindness of white people in the story gets fluffed up in the beginning so the white people reading the book do not drop it quickly and because, as a young kid, some white people, especially moms, may feel more empathetic to him and treat him kinder, than if he was an adult.

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