A primary source is a story being told by the person who experienced that story.

The two texts that are being compared, La Relacion by Cabeza De Vaca and The
Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano, are both
examples of primary sources. Primary sources such as Olaudah Equianos narrative
and Cabeza de Vacas account provide helpful information in understanding early
American literature, though each source does present limitations.
Cabeza De Vaca was an explorer who was sent out on a mission to conquer the
natives who lived in the Americas. He starts out with hundreds of men by his side sailing
in multiple barges, only to end up with a handful of men sailing in one barge. That barge
doesnt make it very long though, and it crashes into Galveston Island. The few men
that remained wondered onto the island. They encountered the natives who lived there,
and hearing about stories and legends about human sacrifices, they feared for their
lives. Instead of being sacrificed, Cabeza and his men were taken care of by the natives
until their strength and hope returned. Cabeza De Vaca had written his story in hopes
that the king would read it and understand how troubling and difficult his journey was,
but how they had succeeded with their mission. There were so many men with Cabeza
at the beginning of his journey that they could have all told the story the same way
Cabeza did, but at the end of their journey, there were so few of them that Im sure the
story could have been told many different ways. If you wanted to know about their
journey towards the beginning Im sure you could have asked most of the men what
happened and they would all tell you the same story. An example from the book is page
74 lines 1-2. They werent in too much trouble at that point. If you were to ask Cabeza
and his men what happened later on during their mission, I bet you would get a few

different stories compared to the one Cabeza wrote for the king. Because of this, his
story isnt very credible for anyone to read. An example from the book is page 76 lines
41-43.
Olaudah Equiano was a slave at a young age. He was captured and put onto a
slave ship where he experienced terrible and disgusting things. In his narrative, he
explains what he saw on this ship and what happened to him. He wrote this piece to
help people better understand the horrors and misery that came along with slavery at
that time. His goal was to bring awareness to people who owned slaves and people who
knew about slavery to try to stop it. The things that happened to him were so severe
and traumatic, Im sure he remembered a lot of it. An example from the book is page 86
lines 12-16. He was there with other slaves, and they had the same experience as him.
I believe that part to be credible. The fact that Olaudah was so much older when he
wrote his narrative makes me think that there are some parts of the story that arent
very credible. An example is page 86 lines 41-47. He says he saw slaves that were
chained together jump over the side of the boat. That doesnt make any sense to me. If
they are chained together, it would be difficult if not impossible to have only a few jump
over while the rest stayed up on the deck.
While both passages have great examples of primary sources to make it seem
credible, both have issues with proving to be actually credible. I enjoyed both stories,
and there was no problem with detail at all. I dont believe most of it though.