Crevecoeur vs. Equiano: Slavery vs. Freedom in America

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... a Negro, suspended in the cage, and left there to expire!” (675).The cage was covered with large birds, which had already picked out the man’s eyes and had attacked him all over his body. The man was pleading for water, which Crevecoeur gave him. Although Crevecoeur expresses his disgust and states that his mind has been oppressed since he witnessed this scene (674), he leaves the man alone and goes to the dinner – arguing that he did not have a ball in his gun to free him from all his sufferings. During the dinner, he learns that this slave had killed the overseer of the plantation and that “the laws of self preservation” (675) made his treatment necessary. In the last sentence, Crevecoeur reports that the people he dined with started talking about slavery in general, but he soon finishes his letter with “Adieu,” as he does not want to “trouble” his readers. (675)
Although Crevecoeur shows his attitude toward slavery just by including this scene in his letters, he stops ...

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lost their cultural roots is a significant sign for the loss of identity running through slave narratives. In Equiano’s case, who considered himself a “particular favorite of Heaven” (748), we learn about a young man who, although he was lucky enough to get to know people who would teach him how to write, and to have a master who treated him in a rather good way and even allowed him to do quite responsible work as a clerk, he could not stand the feeling of being owned by someone else whose mood might decide his life. His African identity was taken away from him, as well as all notions of individuality and freedom, the latter considered as the basic values on which the “new” country was ...

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