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 25
Page
... living there . By Equiano's account , the amount of time he spent in North America during his life could be measured in months , not years . Whether he spent a few months , as he claims , or several years , as other evidence suggests , ...
... living there . By Equiano's account , the amount of time he spent in North America during his life could be measured in months , not years . Whether he spent a few months , as he claims , or several years , as other evidence suggests , ...
Page
... living in conditions that did not prompt others to record for posterity their interactions with him . Before the last decade of his life he lived in relative obscurity , whether enslaved or free . Even after 1787 , when he became a ...
... living in conditions that did not prompt others to record for posterity their interactions with him . Before the last decade of his life he lived in relative obscurity , whether enslaved or free . Even after 1787 , when he became a ...
Page
... living on £ 300 sterling a year . A maid might be paid ( in addition to room , board , cast - off clothes , and tips ) around 6 guineas per year ; a manservant , around £ 10 per year ; and an able seaman , after deductions , received ...
... living on £ 300 sterling a year . A maid might be paid ( in addition to room , board , cast - off clothes , and tips ) around 6 guineas per year ; a manservant , around £ 10 per year ; and an able seaman , after deductions , received ...
Page 13
... living is entirely plain ; for as yet the natives are unacquainted with those refinements in cookery which debauch the taste " ( 34 , 35 ) . Their food consists of bullocks , goats , and poultry , seasoned with " pepper , and other ...
... living is entirely plain ; for as yet the natives are unacquainted with those refinements in cookery which debauch the taste " ( 34 , 35 ) . Their food consists of bullocks , goats , and poultry , seasoned with " pepper , and other ...
Page 14
... living at a distance . ” Although “ Oye - Eboe ” may be a version of the Igbo word oyibo used in the nineteenth century to mean " white man , " Equiano clearly uses it to refer to other Africans , perhaps the Aro slave traders . At this ...
... living at a distance . ” Although “ Oye - Eboe ” may be a version of the Igbo word oyibo used in the nineteenth century to mean " white man , " Equiano clearly uses it to refer to other Africans , perhaps the Aro slave traders . At this ...
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