Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made ManThis definitive biography tells the story of the former slave Olaudah Equiano (1745?–1797), who in his day was the English-speaking world’s most renowned person of African descent. Equiano’s greatest legacy is his classic 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. A key document of the early movement to ban the slave trade, as well as the fundamental text in the genre of the African American slave narrative, it includes the earliest known purported firsthand description by an enslaved victim of the horrific Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas. Equiano, the African is filled with fresh revelations about this many-sided figure. |
From inside the book
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... Igbo people . In my area , historically , they did not see themselves as Igbo . They saw themselves as people from this village or that village . In fact in some places " Igbo " was a word of abuse ; they were the " other " people ...
... Igbo people . In my area , historically , they did not see themselves as Igbo . They saw themselves as people from this village or that village . In fact in some places " Igbo " was a word of abuse ; they were the " other " people ...
Page 3
... Igbo ( " Eboe " ) originally named Olaudah Equiano appears to have evolved during 1788 in response to the needs of the abolitionist movement . In a book review in the Public Advertiser in February 1788 he noted that “ were I to ...
... Igbo ( " Eboe " ) originally named Olaudah Equiano appears to have evolved during 1788 in response to the needs of the abolitionist movement . In a book review in the Public Advertiser in February 1788 he noted that “ were I to ...
Page 6
... IGBO Calabar MILES Congo KONGO ANGOLA .................................... --- ||| --- ||||| JUSTHEILU Reade to Senegal : " Which way soever I turned my eyes on this pleasant spot , I beheld a perfect image of pure nature : an agreeable ...
... IGBO Calabar MILES Congo KONGO ANGOLA .................................... --- ||| --- ||||| JUSTHEILU Reade to Senegal : " Which way soever I turned my eyes on this pleasant spot , I beheld a perfect image of pure nature : an agreeable ...
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... Igbo villages in Benin , " every transaction of the government . . . was conducted by the chiefs or elders of the place " ( 32 ) . Equiano's unnamed father " was one of those elders or chiefs . . . styled Embrenché ; a term ...
... Igbo villages in Benin , " every transaction of the government . . . was conducted by the chiefs or elders of the place " ( 32 ) . Equiano's unnamed father " was one of those elders or chiefs . . . styled Embrenché ; a term ...
Page 10
... Igbo culture . He tells us that he was born in 1745 in " that part of Africa , known by the name of Guinea , to which the trade for slaves is carried on . ” His certainty about the date of his birth undermines rather than inspires ...
... Igbo culture . He tells us that he was born in 1745 in " that part of Africa , known by the name of Guinea , to which the trade for slaves is carried on . ” His certainty about the date of his birth undermines rather than inspires ...
Contents
1 | |
17 | |
39 | |
Chapter Four Freedom Denied | 71 |
Chapter Five Bearing Witness | 92 |
Chapter Six Freedom of a Sort | 119 |
Chapter Seven Toward the North Pole | 135 |
Chapter Eight Born Again | 161 |
Chapter Ten The Black Poor | 202 |
Chapter Eleven Turning against the Slave Trade | 236 |
Chapter Twelve Making a Life | 270 |
Chapter Thirteen The Art of the Book | 303 |
Chapter Fourteen A SelfMade Man | 330 |
Notes | 369 |
Bibliography | 395 |
Index | 419 |
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Common terms and phrases
Abolition abolitionist African British African descent America appeared Atlantic autobiography Benezet Bight of Biafra black poor boat Britain British called captain century Christian Church Clarkson coast colonies command crew Cugoano death deck Eboe edition eighteenth eighteenth-century England English enslaved Africans European Farmer freedom French frontispiece George Granville Sharp Guinea Gustavus Vassa History House of Commons human identity Igbo Ignatius Sancho Indian Interesting Narrative Irving island Jamaica James John King land letter London Lord Mansfield master Middle Passage Montserrat Morning Post Mosquito Mosquito Coast muster list naval Negroes never North Norwich Olaudah Equiano owners Pascal passage Phipps Pitt planters Public Advertiser published Quakers Ramsay readers Royal Navy sailed Sancho seamen servant ship Sierra Leone slavery Society sold soon subscribers Thomas thought tion told transatlantic slave trade Vasa vessel voyage West Indies William writing