Frederick Douglass and Ouladah Equiano

Frederick Douglass and Olaudah Equiano were two slaves that encountered a very similar way of living in two completely different places and times in the world. They were both very intelligent and committed men who after witnessing and incurring the horrible offenses of slavery were dedicated to become free and abolish slavery forever. While Equiano and Douglass were born at different times and separate places in the world, the emotional and mental instability they endured as slaves were very similar, and very tough to overcome.

From a young age Equiano didn't have the typical life of what's considered to be a slave, in that he wasn't born into slavery. In Equiano's narrative, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself, he says "I still look back with pleasure on the first scenes of my life... In this way I grew up till I had turned the age of eleven, when an end was put to my happiness." At the age of 11 Equiano's life was turned upside down when he was taken from his home. In this passage you can get an idea of how he looks to his younger days with satisfaction and bliss and he also gives you a quick insight of his future in slavery referring to the end of his happiness. This will prove to only be one of much more emotional instability he will continue to encounter.

Frederick Douglass didn't enjoy the privileges of having a family to support him at a young age, nor any real since of freedom at a young age, due to being born a slave. In Douglass's Narrative, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas, he recounts his experience of his childhood and says, "A want of information concerning my own was a source of unhappiness to me even during childhood". Douglass's childhood was the opposite of Equiano's and he knew nothing but of a slaves life. Douglass would hear other kids talking of their age and he was unhappy that he didn't even know his own. Without knowing his own age and being separated from his immediate family at such a young age Douglass never truly had a happy upbringing and wouldn't experience any since of happiness until later in life.

After Equiano and his sister were kidnapped from their home, he would endure a life he was unaccustomed to and would come to despise. When his sister was taken away from him Equiano then says, "The next day proved a day of greater sorrow than I had yet experienced; for my sister and I were then separated, while we lay clasped in each other's arms". Equiano describes his emotions here and "cried and grieved continually" after he was left to deal with this atrocity. This was a tough time for Equiano who had been around his family his entire life to now having no one, not even his sister. Equiano would continue to endure hardship for the next few months as a slave and even running away in fear of being beaten. He would go on to describe his escape as being a burden upon him and his mind and said, "This increased my anguish, and the horror of my situation became quite insupportable". Equiano thought that he would escape the grasp of slavery and return home, but it turned out to not be the escape and he would lose all hope. Now Equiano has been on an emotional rollercoaster from happiness in the safety of his home to sadness of his separation from his sister and family, fear of being beaten, and the uncertainty of never escaping his current fate.

Douglass continues to know nothing of freedom as he works for Colonel Lloyd, on his plantation, where he witnessed brutal whippings, including his aunt, to where "the warm, red blood (amid heart-rending shrieks from her, and horrid oaths from him) came dripping to the floor". Douglass also witnessed murders by gun for disobedience,