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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... slavery in the sugar islands , Equiano managed to save enough money to buy his own freedom in 1766. In Central America he helped purchase and supervised slaves on a plantation . Equiano set off on voyages of commerce and adventure to ...
... slavery in the sugar islands , Equiano managed to save enough money to buy his own freedom in 1766. In Central America he helped purchase and supervised slaves on a plantation . Equiano set off on voyages of commerce and adventure to ...
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... slavery and the slave trade . These last thirty - five years have witnessed a renaissance of interest in Equiano's autobiography and its author . During Equiano's own lifetime The Interesting Narrative went through an impressive nine ...
... slavery and the slave trade . These last thirty - five years have witnessed a renaissance of interest in Equiano's autobiography and its author . During Equiano's own lifetime The Interesting Narrative went through an impressive nine ...
Page 2
... slavery . Opponents of slavery became generally known as abolitionists only after the transatlantic slave trade became illegal in 1807. Responding to the growing public interest in abolition , in February 1788 King George III ordered ...
... slavery . Opponents of slavery became generally known as abolitionists only after the transatlantic slave trade became illegal in 1807. Responding to the growing public interest in abolition , in February 1788 King George III ordered ...
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... Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species in London in 1787 he chose not to describe Africa or the Middle Passage in much detail . A member of the Fante people from the area of present - day Ghana who had been kidnapped into slavery ...
... Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species in London in 1787 he chose not to describe Africa or the Middle Passage in much detail . A member of the Fante people from the area of present - day Ghana who had been kidnapped into slavery ...
Page 8
... slavery . Creating or re - creating an African past allowed him to forge a personal and national identity other than ... slaves , had a numerous family , of which seven lived to grow up , including myself and a sister , who was the only ...
... slavery . Creating or re - creating an African past allowed him to forge a personal and national identity other than ... slaves , had a numerous family , of which seven lived to grow up , including myself and a sister , who was the only ...
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