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 38
Page 5
... common negative view to his son in a geography lesson : “ Africa is , as you know , divided into nine [ sic ] principal parts , which are Egypt , Barbary , Biledulgerid , Zaara , Nigritia , Guinea , Nubia , and Ethiopia . The Africans ...
... common negative view to his son in a geography lesson : “ Africa is , as you know , divided into nine [ sic ] principal parts , which are Egypt , Barbary , Biledulgerid , Zaara , Nigritia , Guinea , Nubia , and Ethiopia . The Africans ...
Page 13
... common stock ; and as we are unacquainted with idleness , we have no beggars " ( 38 ) . The benefits of such a combination of temperate living and healthy exercise are obvious : .9 The West - India planters prefer the slaves of Benin or ...
... common stock ; and as we are unacquainted with idleness , we have no beggars " ( 38 ) . The benefits of such a combination of temperate living and healthy exercise are obvious : .9 The West - India planters prefer the slaves of Benin or ...
Page 15
... common ; and I believe more are procured this this way , and by kidnapping , than any other . 19 When a trader wants slaves , he applies to a chief for them , and tempts him with his wares . It is not extraordinary , if on this occasion ...
... common ; and I believe more are procured this this way , and by kidnapping , than any other . 19 When a trader wants slaves , he applies to a chief for them , and tempts him with his wares . It is not extraordinary , if on this occasion ...
Page 25
... common abolitionist argument that the most important product of the West Indies could be profitably cultivated in Africa by free native labor . As part of the global economy in the eighteenth century European slave traders and their ...
... common abolitionist argument that the most important product of the West Indies could be profitably cultivated in Africa by free native labor . As part of the global economy in the eighteenth century European slave traders and their ...
Page 28
... common in the Biafran hinterland , and women and children composed a higher percentage of slaves taken from the Bight of Biafra than from other ports . " None of Equiano's readers could fairly argue that a seven- or eight - year - old ...
... common in the Biafran hinterland , and women and children composed a higher percentage of slaves taken from the Bight of Biafra than from other ports . " None of Equiano's readers could fairly argue that a seven- or eight - year - old ...
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