Post 5 - Tate

The Crossroad Between Gulliver and Equiano

Superficially, Gulliver’s Travel and Equiano appear to be different. In Gulliver’s case, the setting is fantastical and absurd and revolves around Gulliver’s perceptions of different cultures and customs. In Equiano’s narrative, the world of the African slave trade is portrayed. Despite their differences though, the two narratives hold a few similarities. Two of them are the exploitation of people and their land and greed from trade (whether that be from people or other objects). These connections between them show us how the Americas were founded by dehumanization and corruption as they relate to indigenous peoples.

In Gulliver’s Travel, Gulliver immediately identifies himself as a successful doctor, “I was surgeon successively in two ships, and made several voyages, for six years, to the East and West Indies, by which I got some addition to my fortune” (Part 1, Ch. 1). This shows how Gulliver is apart of the slave trade indirectly. Although he is not participating in the trade of humans, he is a doctor on the ships and thus contributes to the exploitation of people. What he does “trade” though, is the objects he collects from the places he visits to prove his alleged truths. Upon his new voyage, Gulliver shows off the trinkets he got from his travels to Mr. Thomas Wilcocks, “I opened it in his own presence, and showed him the small collection of rarities I made in the country from which I had been so strangely delivered. There was the comb I had contrived out of the stumps of the king's beard, and another of the same materials… I desired the captain would please to accept this ring in return for his civilities (Part 2 Ch. 8). Here, Gulliver is trying to be involved trade, services for the goods he has collected. Gulliver’s actions show that he views his collection as just things with no real personal value and things to gaze at. The humanity behind these objects are lost when profiteering come into play.

Equiano’s narrative shows the same barbarizing and capitalization of people. Equiano showcases the psychological horror that slavery leaves when he gets to Montserrat, “At the sight of this land of bondage, a fresh horror ran through all my frame, and chilled me to the heart. My former slavery now rose in dreadful review to my mind, and displayed nothing but misery, stripes, and chains; and in the first paroxysm of my grief, I called upon God’s thunder, and his avenging power, to direct the stroke of death to me, rather than permit to become a slave, and to be sold from lord to lord “(Chapter 5). Slavery, like in the quote, has clearly scarred Equiano and at this point he is still bound to his master. Through this exploitive nature, white masters have created an avenue to achieve what they want, whether that be money through plantations, building things, etc, they are exploiting and dehumanizing a group of people all in the name of advancement. Equiano is clearly affected by his prior involvement in slavery and categorizes it as being able to “chill his heart” and reduce him to misery. He goes as far as to say that he prefers death over slivery, but again this means nothing to the European Christians who disregard the Bible when it comes to capitalizing off of the enslavement of people that they convince themselves are lesser than.

These two stories, while different in experience, but similar in themes, reveal the depravity behind the foundation of the Americas.

References

Equiano, O., & Edwards, P. (1969). The life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa the African, 1789. London: Dawsons of Pall Mall.

Swift, J., & Gough, A. B. (1939). Gullivers travel. Oxford: Clarendon Press.