Essay 4 - Newhard

The age of Enlightenment, as the eighteenth century is often called, was a time of rising optimism. Educated Europeans envisioned themselves as the most civilized people in history. Reason, they optimistically predicted, would dispel the mists of human ignorance, superstition, and prejudice. Although enlightenment thinkers envisioned a human race filled with progressive ideas and which embraced principles of reason, many factors served as obstacles to the realization of the vision. Ignorance, for example, the foundation of bias and unwitting prejudice, clouded the perceptions and judgments of some of the most educated men of this time. In human terms, the most glaring evidence of the failure of the Enlightenment was the perpetuation of the slave trade, which despite much condemnation, flourished until the mid nineteenth century.
African children were often kidnapped by unscrupulous natives who profited handsomely by selling their captives to white slave traders. The fate of the African slave who survived the perilous “Middle Passage” was a life of unspeakable suffering. A first-hand account of this inhumane system is central to the autobiographical narrative of Olaudah Equiano who was born in the West African Kingdom of Benin and kidnapped and enslaved at the age of eleven. Both as a slave and after his release from slavery in 1766, Equiano traveled widely. For Olaudah Equiano, the concept of freedom had many definitions. While Olaudah was a child, being transported from ship to ship and master to master, his understanding of freedom came from the memories of his childhood. Soon, Olaudah began to understand the way of the Western world and his concept of freedom changed; he now saw freedom as being incorporated into Western culture. Olaudah eventually purchased his “freedom” from his master in 1766 but he did not feel completely liberated. In order for Equiano and other Africans to be completely “free” they desired to be accepted by whites by conforming to white society. In order to achieve this concept of freedom, Olaudah and other Africans believed that education and Christianity were the keys.
Unfortunately, the material benefit of slavery outweighed the moral indecency to many of the English in the eighteenth century. Although many English citizens believed the treatment of the African slaves to be unnecessary and the Christian church convinced the courts to abolish slavery, African men and women were never equal to those of white English society. The planters particularly, were against the abolishment of slavery and the missionary action to teach the slaves about Christianity. They believed that the African slaves were not intelligent enough to comprehend Christian beliefs and that they did not have the intelligence to comprehend their religion. The planters also feared that if the slaves were taught about Christianity, they would see themselves as equals to the planters and other Christian believers. On the other side of the argument, those who wanted to teach Christianity to the slaves believed that if the slaves were taught about Christianity, they would become more obedient and better workers for the planters. Either way both sides of the argument were against the freedom and equality of the Africans.