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Comparing Equiano’s Autobiography and William Wilberforce’s abolitionist speeches
Introduction
Olaudah Equiano and William Wilberforce are great personalities who are recognized by history
books as people who inspired the fight against slavery. The two individual’s campaigns against
slavery still resonate with so many individuals today. In the course of their campaigns, these two
personalities used different strategies to persuade their audiences that they should end the slave
trade. This paper aims to interrogate the campaigns that Wilberforce and Equiano led, compare
and contrast the strategies which they employed in their campaigns, and the things they shared.
Background of Equiano and Wilberforce’s Campaigns Against Slavery
The story of Olaudah is particularly interesting. In his autobiography titled “The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano”, he speaks about himself and tells the story about how
he was captured as a young man at the age of eleven and put into slavery. Over the following ten
years from the time of his capture, he embarks on what he refers to as a journey to freedom.
According to him, this journey to freedom not only involved the physical freedom but also
intellectual and religious freedom. He narrates that he traveled the world for eight years as a
slave to aa British Royal Navy officer and eventually purchased his freedom in the year 1766 for
£40 (Equiano 23). After securing his release, Equiano worked as an explorer and a merchant for
20 years. After that, he finally decided to settle in England where he was an ardent supporter of
other ex-slaves. A story about Equiano shows that he was a man who had mixed feelings towards
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slavery. However, despite these mixed feelings about it, he finally took a position and made a
passionate plea for its abolition. The views of Equiano, as shall be seen in the subsequent
sections of this paper, are forged from his own personal journey as a slave and are specifically
drawn from the areas of religion, class, and Equiano’s sense of economics in the marketplace.
On his part, William Wilberforce was a politician from England who became the voice of
the slavery abolishment movement in parliament. Wilberforce was born in Hull. His family was
a rich merchant family. When he was a child, he paid his uncle a visit from where he was taken
to hear the preaching of John Newton. The preaching of John Newton is reported to have had a
great impression on Wilberforce as he progressed with his life. At the age of 21, Wilberforce was
elected to parliament. His election to parliament was not a surprise as he had already been
regarded as an individual who was suited to politics going by how eloquent he was as a speaker
