Thomas Paine and Olaudah Quiano - Essay Example

However, its guiding principal was that slaves were a property. For instance, Olaudah Equiano acknowledges the fact that what hit him most at the coast were the slave ships that were waiting for their cargos (Olaudah 50). The given masters, therefore, had to learn how to treat their slaves as both men and property. The slave, on the other hand, learnt to express and affirm their humanity even if they were forced to accept their status chattels. The owners of the slaves and the slaves themselves differed on the basis of color, class, and race.

The author says that, complexions of the whites differed so much from his; not only their long hair, but also their language. In addition, slave owners used the salves to maintain their social status. Immediately they arrived at the island of Barbadoes, many merchants and planters came on board in order to pick up their slaves. Slaves on the other hand, had to strike their own balance on either being obedient or rebellious; they could weigh on whether to accommodate all the facts of their slave lives or to against the dominance of their masters (William 25).

Each day, they had to struggle for their survival amidst undergoing the trauma of loneliness. Once sold to a strange land they were very sure that they would never get an opportunity to intermingle with their native people (Olaudah 20). In as much as they hated slavery, they had to put up with their owners’ arrogance because they were in a new country. The slave owners who thought that Afro-Americans were only sub-humans chattels went ahead even to convert their slaves to a new religion.

This act stressed not only their humanity but also stretched their divinity. The author himself, acted as a perfect example as he was converted into Christianity. American Revolution was a period of total consolidation and reinforcement. Slavery geographical spread was mainly in the North and South. Blacks imported from Africa were compelled to adapt to their new environments and the tough demands of their new way of life. By the time of revolution, however, most of the slaves were not African-born but American-born.

The masters had the greatest opportunity to instill the virtue of submissiveness in the lives of their new slaves as from infancy. The life of the slaves was so dull that some people ended up preferring death to slavery. As the author and his counterparts were on their way to the foreign land, some of them even opted to jump into sea rather than living that misery life. Thomas Paine on the other hand, was a unique man in his own way. A natural gift of rebellion and pamphleteering was within him.

This implies that his birth took place at the most opportune moment; Revolution period (Thomas 1). He was one man who believed that his country was the world, and that the greatest mandate that he had was to do good to the entire society. Revolution began in America in the 18th Century. America’s founding fathers sought justification to commence a rebellion against the despotic empire (Great Britain) that believed was their rightful government. According to the king, rebellion was illegal.

Forefathers found solace in higher laws despite the fact that British gave so much