Equiano\'s Travels Edited by PA

Equiano's Travels: A Summary of the Story

Equiano begins his story in Eboe, his homeland, a province of the kingdom of Benin. His tales recount his observations in his homeland and he notes some of the cultural and social events he encounters during his travels. He tells of the justice system in his homeland, which he thought to be fair - law of retaliation. He also notes the double standards present; husbands can have as many wives as they want, but the woman is allowed only one husband, and adultery was punishable by death. He makes note of things like these and continues to note other issues surrounding marriage and kinship relations. He seems to have a great interest in human nature and how relationships are carried out with one another.

Equiano also goes into the joy people experience around him. How they celebrate even the minor events with "dancing, musicians, and poets" and how they are just generally joyful people. He even goes into the vibrant colors of their dress and what they wear. Then details of their eating habits, noting that they always leave some remains for their dead ancestors, and washing their hands before eating is a must. The first part of the book, then, spends most of its time describing his homeland and everything that makes up this part of the world.

There are themes that are pronounced in this book. One of which is that these people who were being treated so inhumanely by the slave trade, were only people, people that were otherwise joyous, in spite of their conditions. Equiano reminds us that these were people and not animals; people that were victims of their time. His travels and observations illustrate this point, this contradiction. He brings to them their personality and their color that was stripped away from them by their time and circumstances.

The greatest learning and lesson of the book occurs when Equiano gets kidnapped, along with this sister; his fall from innocence begins with this event. As he's being taken through what feels like eternity, he arrives at the shore and has his first encounter with Europeans. The Europeans were pained as being a savage race, so much different than the people of his homeland. In fact, they did not even wash their hands when they ate. Equiano notes these differences in other ways, too. He observes their tattoos and how the women acted "unwomanly." This description of the Europeans was quite interesting because he had never seen Europeans until this point. HE notes many things about the Europeans, including that the Europeans must have some magic spell which they cast in the water for when the ship must be made to stop; he was describing an anchor.

Without a doubt, Equiano's travels keeps the reader turning page after page with excitement. His unravels adventure, suspense, and every emotion that goes along with it. His description of things that are both familiar and unfamiliar is very engaging. Incident after incident, you think that he is going to fall prey to racism and violence, and yet comes out unscathed, and we are just as overjoyed about this. He gets sequestred by several white men. The reader is lead to believe that he should surely loose his two bags (the bags of fruit cost all the money he had managed to muster from previous black market trade.) He loses none; his friend, on the other hand, loses the one bag that he bought.