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 49
Page
... 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 Gustavus Vassa and brought him to London . With Pascal ...
... 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 Gustavus Vassa and brought him to London . With Pascal ...
Page
... taken from Africa and brought to the Americas as slaves . Equiano recognized a way to do very well financially by doing a great deal of good in supplying that much - needed voice . Equiano may have forged a part of his personal identity ...
... taken from Africa and brought to the Americas as slaves . Equiano recognized a way to do very well financially by doing a great deal of good in supplying that much - needed voice . Equiano may have forged a part of his personal identity ...
Page 18
... taken to the European colonies in the Caribbean and South America . About 29 percent of the total number brought to the Americas went to the British colonies . Before 1808 perhaps fewer than four hundred thousand enslaved Africans were ...
... taken to the European colonies in the Caribbean and South America . About 29 percent of the total number brought to the Americas went to the British colonies . Before 1808 perhaps fewer than four hundred thousand enslaved Africans were ...
Page 23
... one another's arms all that night , and bathing each other with our tears " ( 47 ) . But even that small comfort was taken from them when they were separated . The small boy " was left in a state of distraction THE MIDDLE PASSAGE 23.
... one another's arms all that night , and bathing each other with our tears " ( 47 ) . But even that small comfort was taken from them when they were separated . The small boy " was left in a state of distraction THE MIDDLE PASSAGE 23.
Page 24
... taken westward from his home , though at the time he was unfamiliar with the concepts of east , west , north , and south : " My father's house was towards the rising of the sun " ( 48 ) . His motives for wanting " to seize the first ...
... taken westward from his home , though at the time he was unfamiliar with the concepts of east , west , north , and south : " My father's house was towards the rising of the sun " ( 48 ) . His motives for wanting " to seize the first ...
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