Equiano's purpose in writing this text was to convince the readers to become abolishionists or at least support them. He makes this clear as he consistently uses descriptive and emotional words to persuade the reader. One example of this in the text is where he is talking about the traders beating a slave who tried to jump overboard. He says, "... [They] flogged him unmercifully for this attempting to prefer death to slavery." He uses "unmercifully" to put a picture in the reader's head of how horribly the man was beat. This would appeal to the reader's emotions because it shows how the traders saw the slaves as objects or animals and they didn't care about their well being but wanted them to live so they could be sold for money. He also
