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Slavery's Personal Stories

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Slavery's Personal Stories

Read the source summary carefully, then answer the questions using evidence from it and your historical knowledge. The summary is a paraphrase, not a direct quotation. Slavery involved the forced loss of freedom and was profoundly harmful.

One person's account

Olaudah Equiano was an African writer who published his autobiography in Britain. In his account, he describes being taken from his home as a child and separated from his sister. He was forced aboard a ship crossing the Atlantic. He later wrote about the fear and distress he experienced during the voyage. During the voyage, before he was sold in the Americas, he was given the name Gustavus Vassa. Equiano eventually gained his freedom and used his writing to argue against the slave trade. His account tells us about his own experiences; it cannot tell us exactly what every enslaved person experienced.

Read the account closely

Use details from the source summary in your answers. Remember that a personal account is valuable evidence, but one person's experience does not represent everyone.

1.Which statement best describes the source summary?

It is a paraphrase of Equiano's own account.
It is a government law from 1789.
It is a diary written by a ship's captain.
It describes what every enslaved person experienced.

2.Name two ways the account shows that slavery affected Equiano's personal life.

3.True or false? Equiano's account says that he was given the name Gustavus Vassa after he was sold.

TrueFalse

4.Complete the sentence: Equiano published his autobiography in .

5.Match each term to the best meaning.

Autobiography
Paraphrase
Evidence

A restatement of ideas in different words
A person's account of their own life
Information used to support an interpretation

6.Identify one example of resistance in Equiano's story and explain why it could be considered resistance.

7.Which is the strongest reason historians study personal accounts alongside other evidence?

They can reveal an individual's experiences and feelings, while other evidence helps provide wider context.
They prove that everyone experienced events in exactly the same way.
They make dates and other evidence unnecessary.
They are always completely free from memory or viewpoint.

8.The summary says Equiano's account cannot tell us exactly what every enslaved person experienced. Explain why this is an important limit to remember.

9.How might being separated from his sister and given a different name have affected Equiano's sense of family or identity? Give one reasoned possibility, using the account.

10.Write two sentences: one explaining what Equiano's account can teach us about slavery, and one explaining a limit of using only his account.