| The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African | |
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 Cover image |
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| Author(s) | Olaudah Equiano |
| Country | Great Britain |
| Language | English |
| Subject(s) | Autobiography |
| Publication date | 1789 |
| OCLC Number | 23633870 |
| LC Classification | HT869.E6 A3 1794 |
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The book describes Equiano's time spent in slavery, and documents his attempts at becoming an independent man through his study of the Bible, and his eventual success in gaining his own freedom and in business thereafter.
Contents |
Main themes [edit]
- The African slave's voyage from Africa (Igboland) to the Americas and England.[1]
- The journey from slavery to freedom and parallel journey from heathenism to Christianity.
Chapter 2 Summary
Equiano begins the chapter by explaining how he and his sister were kidnapped. The pair are forced to travel with their captors for a time, when one day the two children are separated. Equiano becomes the slave-companion to the children of a wealthy chieftain. He stays there for about a month, when he runs away after accidentally killing one of his master's chickens. Equiano hides in the shrubbery and woods surrounding his master's village, but after several days without food, steals away into his master's kitchen to eat. Exhausted, Equiano falls asleep in the kitchen and is discovered by another slave who takes Equiano to the master. The master is forgiving and insists that Equiano shall not be harmed.
Soon after, Equiano is sold to a group of travelers. One day, his sister appears with her master at the house and they share a joyous reunion. However, soon afterward she and her company departs, and Equiano never sees his sister again. Equiano is eventually sold to a wealthy widow and her young son. Equiano lives almost as an equal among them and is very happy until he is again taken away and forced to travel with "heathens" until they reach the seacoast.[2]
Equiano is forced onto a slave ship and spends the next several weeks on the ship under terrible conditions. He points out the 'closeness of the place, and the heat of the clomate, added to the number in the ship' suffocates them; some slaves even preferred to drown, and one was saved but to be flogged later, as he had chosen to die instead of being a slave. At last they reach the island of Barbados where Equiano and all the other slaves are separated and sold. The author mentions the impact of their selling away, as 'on the signal given, (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at onve into the yard where they are confined, and make choice of that parlcel they like best. [...] The noise and clamor [...] serve not not a little to increase the apprehension of the Terrified Africans.'
Throughout the whole passage, Equiano refers to white people as cruel, greedy and mean, and is very surprised by the way they relate to each other, as they are even cruel between them, not only to the slaves.
Criticism [edit]
The book contains a discussion of slavery in West Africa and illustrates how the experience differs from the slavery of the Americas.[citation needed] The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is also one of the first widely read slave narratives.[citation needed] It was generally reviewed favorably.[citation needed] It was used as a model for subsequent slave narratives.[1]
References [edit]
- ^ a b The Signifying Monkey, by Henry Louis Gates, Jr, Oxford University Press, hardcover, pages 153-157
- ^ Equiano in Africa A recreation of the childhood kidnapping of Olaudah Equiano.
External links [edit]
- The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African at Project Gutenberg
- Catalog record for The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African at the United States Library of Congress
- LibriVox recording
- Text from Google Books
- The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano: A short animation partially adapted from the book with a third act set in 1838 when slavery is abolished.
- "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African". Munsey's Magazine. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
- "North American Slave Narratives: Alphabetical List of Slave and Ex-Slave Narratives". Documenting the American South. The University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. 2004. Retrieved 12 September 2012.
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