| Own History Essay

The narrator of the excerpt tells his own story about travel on the slave ship. The narrator appears to be the main character of the story as well. He starts his narration with his placement on the slave ship, and continues with the story about the travel. He describes the behavior of the white slave traders regarding the enslaved men on board of the ship. The narrator illustrates his story with realistic impressions and emotions. The role of the African prisoners is shown from rather realistic point of view, including their everyday lifestyle and sufferings. On the whole, the excerpt depicts the way of the future slaves, brought from Africa to America.

The question of the audience is quite controversial, as due to the presence of the short note about the author, we might consider that the story was intended to be heard by the audience of high school or college students. There is a possibility that either a teacher of literature or history will use this excerpt as an illustrative material for the class to let the students get a realistic viewpoint about the historic event.

The excerpt cannot be called a completely reliable historical source. The fact that the author went through all the events described in the story does not guarantee that the story was not changed. The author might have changed some details of the narration so that it would sound more like a fiction. Apparently, the author’s goal was to entertain the target reader. Moreover, the fiction element makes us think that the story has too many made-up elements, which deprive the narration of its historical significance. Since the story has a bigger correlation with fiction than history, it cannot be considered a completely reliable historic source.