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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Page 1
... Morning Chronicle , and other newspapers during 1787 and 1788 knew him as a controversialist who firmly defended his personal reputation while opposing the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and the institution of slavery ...
... Morning Chronicle , and other newspapers during 1787 and 1788 knew him as a controversialist who firmly defended his personal reputation while opposing the transatlantic trade in enslaved Africans and the institution of slavery ...
Page 3
... Morning Herald reported that he was " from Guinea . " But the revelation that Gustavus Vassa was a native - born Igbo ( " Eboe " ) originally named Olaudah Equiano appears to have evolved during 1788 in response to the needs of the ...
... Morning Herald reported that he was " from Guinea . " But the revelation that Gustavus Vassa was a native - born Igbo ( " Eboe " ) originally named Olaudah Equiano appears to have evolved during 1788 in response to the needs of the ...
Page 25
... morning . Rather than receiving the punishment he had feared , he was only " slightly reprimanded " before being welcomed back ( 50 ) . His sense of security was short lived . His master , heartbroken over the death of his only daughter ...
... morning . Rather than receiving the punishment he had feared , he was only " slightly reprimanded " before being welcomed back ( 50 ) . His sense of security was short lived . His master , heartbroken over the death of his only daughter ...
Page 26
... morning early , while my dear master and companion was still asleep , I was awakened out of my reverie to fresh sorrow , and hurried away even amongst the uncircumcised " ( 53 ) . Equiano's reference to uncircumcised Africans is odd ...
... morning early , while my dear master and companion was still asleep , I was awakened out of my reverie to fresh sorrow , and hurried away even amongst the uncircumcised " ( 53 ) . Equiano's reference to uncircumcised Africans is odd ...
Page 29
... morning appeared , when she was again torn from me for ever ! I was now more miserable , if possible , than before . The small relief which her presence gave me from pain was gone , and the wretchedness of my situation was redoubled by ...
... morning appeared , when she was again torn from me for ever ! I was now more miserable , if possible , than before . The small relief which her presence gave me from pain was gone , and the wretchedness of my situation was redoubled by ...
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