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 88
Page
... West Indies . Within a few days , he tells us , he was taken to Virginia and sold to a local planter . After about a month in Virginia he was purchased by Michael Henry Pascal , an officer in the British Royal Navy who renamed him ...
... West Indies . Within a few days , he tells us , he was taken to Virginia and sold to a local planter . After about a month in Virginia he was purchased by Michael Henry Pascal , an officer in the British Royal Navy who renamed him ...
Page 3
... West Indies , which perhaps I may one day offer to the public , the disgusting catalogue would be almost too great for belief " ( 331-32 ) . Although he was clearly contemplating writing the story of his life to serve the abolitionist ...
... West Indies , which perhaps I may one day offer to the public , the disgusting catalogue would be almost too great for belief " ( 331-32 ) . Although he was clearly contemplating writing the story of his life to serve the abolitionist ...
Page 4
... West Indies . No mention was made of Africa . The next month he offered to testify before the committee investigating the African slave trade , but when his offer was not accepted , he submitted a written statement , dated 13 March , to ...
... West Indies . No mention was made of Africa . The next month he offered to testify before the committee investigating the African slave trade , but when his offer was not accepted , he submitted a written statement , dated 13 March , to ...
Page 5
... West Africa and its peoples , did not reflect an equivalent number of new sources . Later accounts copied , abridged ... West Indies ; and likewise sell all those prisoners that they take in war . We buy a great many of them to sell ...
... West Africa and its peoples , did not reflect an equivalent number of new sources . Later accounts copied , abridged ... West Indies ; and likewise sell all those prisoners that they take in war . We buy a great many of them to sell ...
Page 7
... west of the Niger . " 11 Referring to Equiano's " half - remembered African childhood , " the Nobel prize - winning novelist and critic Chinua Achebe admits that by the time Equiano wrote his Interesting Narrative " his ancestral ...
... west of the Niger . " 11 Referring to Equiano's " half - remembered African childhood , " the Nobel prize - winning novelist and critic Chinua Achebe admits that by the time Equiano wrote his Interesting Narrative " his ancestral ...
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