There are many spectacles of the world that share as illustrations of the hardship of mankind. The experiences and misfortunes of people lay the pathway for those who follow their example. One of the accounts describing such experiences is the book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano works his way through the levels of society and at the end of his life finds himself fully involved in European culture.
             Olaudah Equiano was born in the year 1745 in the village of Essaka, which today is known as Isseke, Nigeria. He lived in this farming village until 1756 when he was kidnapped by the Aro peoples who sold him to various masters within Africa. Equiano was slowly moved through Africa until he reached its coast later that year to board a slave ship headed for the Americas. Upon boarding the American slave ship, Equiano first endures the cruelty of the slave world while traveling the Middle Passage. Equiano recalls that slavery was a part of the Ibo world. However, unlike the European exploitation of Africans, African slaves were acquired as prisoners or booty of war or perpetrators of heinous crimes. Equiano's enslavement did not follow these unwritten rules. He nevertheless recalls his African masters as like second families to him. Many spoke the same language and had similar customs. As he was passed from master to master, gradually differences in language and culture !
             When Equiano finally reached the coast, not even all the different peoples he had encountered in Africa lessened the shock of the first vision of Europeans and their goods and customs:
             The first object that saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast, was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, which was soon converted into terror, when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled, and tossed up to see if I were sound, by some o...