Venture Smith and Equiano

• Blog – Compare Equiano to Venture Smith. Both are Africans brought over to America to be slaves. Do they share the same views? How do they differ?

Both Equiano and Venture Smith came from similar backgrounds. Equiano was born in the village of Essaka, which is now modern day Nigeria. Venture Smith was born in Dukandarra, which is believed to be somewhere in modern day Togo, Ghana, or Benin. Both talk about their lives before they were kidnapped, but Equiano goes into detail about his village describing the rituals and the housing. I think that Equiano is very attached to his village’s traditions and manners because he spends such a great deal discussing them. Equiano even said that, “the manners and customs of my country…have been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression in my mind.” (Pg. 200) Both were kidnapped as young kids and had to endure the horrendous journey from western Africa to the Americas in the crowded area under the deck. In Equiano’s story he spent a great deal describing the conditions and just how they were treated, compared to Venture’s story which gives a couple of sentences concerning the journey. Equiano said that he had never seen a white man before he was kidnapped and while on the ship he couldn’t understand anyone. Equiano experience as a slave was very different then Venture’s because unlike Venture who went directly to North America, Equiano was in different parts of Africa before he went to North America and Barbados. Equiano spent most of his time in England, which is, were he started to become interested in others traditions. This shows up at the end of his writing. He was told that he would not go to Heaven unless he was baptized. Equiano also learned the English language, which he was once completely oblivious to. On the other hand, Venture Smith didn’t care about others traditions, he learned about money. Venture gained his freedom and then went about buying other people’s freedom, but only to have them work for him. This is when he felt like his masters did when he was a slave, powerful and rich. However, both Equiano and Venture have one thing in common, and that is that they both learned to write throughout their enslavement. Both Equiano and Venture started living the same, in western Africa, then forced into slavery, but both dealt with their situations differently and ended up in different situations.