After reading the texts from the Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, the letter of Benjamin Benneker to Thomas Jefferson, and The Mary Anderson Interview, I will to the best of my ability show the different emotions and feelings of enslaved Black men and a free black man during the time of the slavery era. In this essay I will elaborate on what I took from these readings and the emotional and mental distress, as well as the physical hardships these men endured during those times. I will also show some of the similarities that these men might have had that can relate to certain movies such as roots and modern day people.

              In the Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano the story gave me the impression that Olaudah was emotionally depressed, fearful, and mortified beyond any means of an average person. Olaudah was from a family of seven children. He was the youngest of six boys and older than his only sister. He was his mother’s favorite child, and he was trained in the art of war. His daily exercise would consist of shooting and throwing javelins in which he excelled. As A reward for hard work and progression his mother would reward him with emblems that resembled those of great warriors in his community. At the tender age of 11 life was over as he knew it and his happiness was put to an end. One day as the Adults of his neighborhood traveled far into the fields as they always did do labor they were approached by kidnappers. Olaudah and his sister were left at home alone to mind the house while their parents were off to work in the fields. The kidnappers made their way over the over the walls and seized both children, They grabbed them and bounded their mouths so fast the children didn’t have a chance to let out a scream before being carried through the woods.. When nightfall arrived the robbers would stop at a small house in which to get refreshments and shelter. The children would then be unbounded at this house but still was not feed for the kidnappers wanted them weak from hunger to prevent escape. The children were overpowered by fatigue and grief, and their only relief was some sleep which allayed their misfortune for a short time. At this point in the story I started to feel the pain of two young children being taken away from their home terrified, and starving. As the story goes on it talks about Olaudah being shipped from slave master to slave master. It also talks about being separated from his sister to one brief encounter with his sister to never seeing her again. Every slave master he encountered was different from the last. Some were abusive and mean while others weren’t. I believe the real turning point in his life is when he was first put on a slave ship and shipped off! That’s where he first saw men of a different culture who spoke a different language they were of pale complexion with long hair. Olaudah thought he was going to be eaten by these people instead he found out he was being sent away to be enslaved. On the slave ship Olaudah witnessed injustices he has never seen before or thought were even humanly possible. After the slave ship Olaudah was sold! In his words I quote ‘Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchness of slavery.” That quote to me summed up everything Olaudah was feeling from enslavement until freedom.

                 Benjamin Banneker’s letters to Thomas Jefferson is a free Black man writing about the moral injustices his people were bestowed upon as a whole and in attempt for change he expressed himself in this letter to Thomas Jefferson who at that time was the United States of America secretary of state. This letter was a plea of justice for African American people! Benjamin Bannekker was a free African American, an Astronomer, Mathematician, and An Author of the Almanac. He was a self educated man as well as very religious. In this letter he writes from a religious point of view trying to gain some kind of sympathy from Thomas Jefferson. A quote from this letter that really caught my attention is that” your sentiments are concurrent with mine, which are, that one universal father hath given being to us all; and that hath not only made us all of one flesh but that he hath also, without  partiality afforded  us all the same sensations and endowed us all with the same faculties; and that however variable we may be in society or religion, however diversified in situation or color, we are all of the same family, and stand in the same relation to him”.  I like this Quote because he pointed out to Thomas Jefferson that we are all children of the universal father regardless of our social status we are all equal in his eyes. His letter was to me was brilliant in terms of using the universal father and religion to get his point across. To me I took from this letter Frustration, Disbelieve, hurt, and restlessness from the moral injustices his race faced on a daily basis.

             Lastly, in the memoirs from the slave narrative collection there is an Interview of a lady named Mary Anderson who was born on a slave plantation in North Carolina on May 10, 1851. The thing that mostly caught my attention was the fact that she didn’t have the same story of misery that most of the slaves shared. The interview was conducted by Pat Matthews and Mary Anderson was 86 years old during this interview. In the interview she describes her slavery days as more pleasant than the horrific tales we’ve grown accustomed to hearing. She talks about her Slave Master Sam Brodie and his Missus Evaline being more family structured and nurturing rather than cruel and abusive people. Her master Sam Brodie provided all of his slaves with good food, afforded them with plenty of warm clothing, and kept them housed comfortably. She described her experience as a slave as most pleasant and comfortable.  The interview for me was very refreshing because it showed me a different side of slavery. It showed that not all Slave Masters were brutes in those days.

                In conclusion, the texts I have read remind me of the movies Roots and Armistead just normal people longing for freedom. Benjamin Banneker’s letters to Thomas Jefferson reminds me of the Rev. Dr Martin Luther King Jr's I have a dream speech. All of these texts are powerful in its unique way of slave’s feelings in the time of the slavery era. I now have a more profound respect for people who endured slavery. I am more thankful that times have changed. Slavery is still alive in America just not in the form of bondage. Free at last free at last thank god almighty we’re free at last.