Equiano and War and Captavity the same?

Alex Cvercko
American Studies
Hoffman 4A



In the reading we received on War and Captivity, we noticed how a woman with a family was abducted and she lived with the native Indians of the area.  Throughout here kidnapping she would commonly refer to the Indians as savage like creatures or refer to their actions to be of savage like nature.  She says the way that they eat and fight depict them as savages.  In the reading of Equiano, we see how a young African boy is deported from his home land and enslaved by white men.  At first he is very scared by the white men and even thinks that they will try to eat him.  His approach on these Europeans was almost the exact same as in War and Captivity.  Equiano saw these white men as savages who used magic and would easily eat him if they became low on food.  These two separate accounts show how the people in these situations are just so ignorant of each other and immediately hone onto the word savage.  The individuals in these stories were quick to judge without much to go on.  The stories mirror each other almost.  In both stories, the main character is stolen from his\her home land and thrown into many different new people who did not spake their language and who they instantly supposed as savage like people or capable of savage like actions.