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
Results 1-5 of 55
Page
... Navy who renamed him Gustavus Vassa and brought him to London . With Pascal , Equiano saw military action on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during the Seven Years ' War . In 1762 , at the end of the conflict , Pascal shocked Equiano ...
... Navy who renamed him Gustavus Vassa and brought him to London . With Pascal , Equiano saw military action on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean during the Seven Years ' War . In 1762 , at the end of the conflict , Pascal shocked Equiano ...
Page
... Navy his account of his subsequent life is remarkably consistent with the historical record . Equiano was certainly African by descent . The circumstantial evidence that Equiano was also African American by birth and African British by ...
... Navy his account of his subsequent life is remarkably consistent with the historical record . Equiano was certainly African by descent . The circumstantial evidence that Equiano was also African American by birth and African British by ...
Page
... Navy rendered him too valuable to be used for the dangerous and backbreaking labor most slaves endured . Service at sea on royal naval and commercial vessels gave him an extraordinary vantage point from which to observe the world around ...
... Navy rendered him too valuable to be used for the dangerous and backbreaking labor most slaves endured . Service at sea on royal naval and commercial vessels gave him an extraordinary vantage point from which to observe the world around ...
Page 38
... Navy , took such an immediate liking to the child that he bought him from Campbell for " thirty or forty pounds sterling , " a rather high price for such a young refuse slave ( 63–64 ) . One of the happiest periods of the eight- or nine ...
... Navy , took such an immediate liking to the child that he bought him from Campbell for " thirty or forty pounds sterling , " a rather high price for such a young refuse slave ( 63–64 ) . One of the happiest periods of the eight- or nine ...
Page 39
... Navy in 1745 during the War of Jenkins ' Ear . That conflict between Britain and Spain lasted from 23 October 1739 until 17 October 1749. Its odd popular name came from its ostensible cause , Spain's mistreatment of British seamen ...
... Navy in 1745 during the War of Jenkins ' Ear . That conflict between Britain and Spain lasted from 23 October 1739 until 17 October 1749. Its odd popular name came from its ostensible cause , Spain's mistreatment of British seamen ...
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 |
Other editions - View all
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