Fear and slavery

In the passage the interesting Life of Equiano, there are different sorts of emotions that are expressed. Each action that is taken has an emotion that is connected to it. I believe for the most part fear is expressed by many slaves; fear plays a major role in every single action taken by a slave. It may be during their attempt to escape or at the time of communication with their master. In my view of a slave’s life, they may be beaten if they make a mistake. At times fear may cause a mistake, slaves feel fear once they notice that they are being watched. Slavery may cause humans to fear other humans, watching humans harm someone that may be “one of their own”, slavery cannot even be compared to animals. Would a lion kill another lion in order to have something to eat for his family? I cannot recall reading or watching something in that sense. Should someone who has been subjected to slavery fear a human if they see one in the middle of the street? Most of the actions expressed by Equiano were based upon fear. Every single movement around Equiano put fear into him, fear of being seen, being caught. He feared of the consequences. What would happen once he is seen? Should he lose all of his hope in being reunited with his family?

Fear caused Equiano to lose hope in returning home. Overhearing those in search of him speaking to one another, of what may result in him escaping. Equiano states that he does not fear the animals in the dark, for he may avoid them, rather he fears humans. Some animals may be fooled; however it would be tough to fool a human. “And now I learned from them, that any attempt to return home would be hopeless…When I heard this I was seized with a violent panic, and abandoned myself to despair.” …”if possibly I could escape all other animals, I could not those of the human kind” In the passage Equiano compared himself to a “hunted deer” at that very moment Equiano was in fact the hunted deer, he was the prey. Fear of being the prey, fear of getting caught, as well as fear of resulting as the hunted deer that is caught, may have caused Equiano to fall back and give in. Fear has played a major role, in addition to him being hungry and thirsty for he has not ate the entire day.