Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano (unknown-1797) was a famous Black American writer who wrote about the tragedy of slavery.
- Olaudah Equiano: BritannicaOlaudah Equiano, also called Gustavus Vassa, (born c. 1745, Essaka [now in Nigeria]?—died March 31, 1797, London, England), abolitionist and writer whose autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789), became the first internationally popular slave narrative...
- Olaudah Equiano: Slavery & RemebranceIn 1789, a middle-aged African-born man in London published The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, laying the foundations for new genres of literature and new ways of understanding the experiences of enslaved people. In this autobiography, the author, Olaudah Equiano, detailed his life journey from African captivity to Atlantic slavery to British freedom. In twelve chapters, Equiano presented a body of evidence that helped to support the cause of abolition and the end of transatlantic slaving by Britain and others...
Research & Reference
- The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, second edition: British LibraryAn enslaved man who bought his freedom and wrote compellingly about his experiences, Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797) was an extraordinary man who became a prominent figure associated with the campaign to abolish the slave trade...
- Middle Passage Olaudah Equiano, Enslaved African Man 1756: Smithsonian instituionFrom the early days of the American colonies, forced labor and slavery grew to become a central part of colonial economic and labor systems. Hard labor made tobacco, rice, and sugar plantations profitable. Buying and enslaving the people who supplied this labor ultimately became a lucrative and tragic part of the commerce in the maritime web that connected Europe, Africa, and the Americas...
Streaming Media
- Olaudah EquianoZinn explains why the former slave's story should be included in understanding African-American history.
- Olaudah Equiano: Slave and AbolitionistFreed slave Olaudah Equiano was an important and influential abolitionist. In his bestselling autobiography, published in 1789, Equiano described the horrors of slavery and made arguments against it in the name of Christianity.
- A Son of Africa: The Autobiography of a Slave ×"The Interesting Narration of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African" was the first influential slave autobiography. It caused a sensation when published in 1789, fueling a growing anti-slavery movement in the U.S. and England. This BBC production employs dramatic reconstruction, archival material and interviews with scholars such as Stuart Hall and Ian Duffield to provide the social and economic context of the 18th century slave trade.
Author's Works & Perspectives
Equiano's Travels
Olaudah Equiano's capture by slave-traders at the age of ten took him from life in what is now Eastern Nigeria and thrust him on a fateful journey that would submerge him in an incomprehensible world. He emerged a gifted writer and has provided insights into centuries of slave trading and why the relationship between black and white seems always in favor of white. First published in 1789, Equiano's engaging narrative, written in English, describes his life before and after his capture; looking forward to recognition as a descendant of a chief; working on slave ships; traveling to the southern states of America, the West Indies, Europe, and the Arctic; and fighting a war. He eventually grew to be an extremely confident man who, even in the worst slavery imaginable, never lost his sense of purpose or his humanity. After buying his freedom, he was an ardent supporter of abolishing slavery. Written with a sense of literary history, Equiano's account corrects wrong impressions about Africa and explores what it is like for an African to find himself suddenly alien in a world that considers Africans as not quite human.
Equiano, the African
An epic of slavery, freedom, and the will to succeed. This definitive biography tells the story of the former slave Olaudah Equiano (1745?-97), 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."" A key document of the early movement to ban the slave trade, it includes the earliest known firsthand description by a slave of the horrific Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas. ""Equiano, the African"" is filled with fresh revelations about this many-sided figure - most notably that Equiano may have been born not in Africa, as he claimed, but in South Carolina. For Vincent Carretta, such disconnects between the public persona and actual life of Equiano only increase his importance as a window into a number of complex, overlapping worlds. Equiano was a sailor, adventurer, entrepreneur, and jack-of-all-trades. Carretta distills years of scholarly detective work on Equiano's life and writings into a richly textured portrait of the man whose many transformations took him from slave to slave trader to anti-slave-trade advocate, and from pagan to Christian. This is ""life and times"" history at its best. Throughout, Carretta relates The Interesting Narrative to the historical record on Equiano, as well as to the century's economic, political, and religious undercurrents. Carretta argues that Equiano may have fabricated his African roots and his survival of the Middle Passage not only to sell more copies of his book but also to help advance the movement against the slave trade. Equiano, the African will leave readers with a fuller appreciation of the man's achievements and a deeper understanding of race and slavery in the Atlantic world.