The correct answer to this open question is the following.
Unfortunately, you did not include the paragraph of Equiano's book. However, we can help with a general comment.
Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) used characterization in his book to give the proper dramatization to the moments and elements he described such as the way whites treated African slaves from the moment they caught them, how slaves were transported and how they were treated during the travel until they were sold as slaves. Characterization is also used in the book to transmit the moments of physical enslavement, the conversion, and how he scaped to be free.
Olaudah Equiano was a Nigerian slave that after escaping from slavery wrote his biography, "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano," in 1789.