The Life of Olaudah Equiano

by Olaudah Equiano

Slave narratives are powerful indictments of the horrors of slavery and oppression, invaluable not only for the stories they tell but also for the consistently high quality of their literary style. This book by Olaudah Equiano is one such story. A compelling account that has gripped and fascinated readers since its original London publication in 1789, the narrative describes Equiano's formidable journey from captivity to freedom and literacy.
Charting a passage that takes him from life as an Igbo prince in what is now eastern Nigeria to the New World, Equiano begins with a description of his native land that includes particulars of the dress, agriculture, industry, commerce, rituals, superstitions, and religious ceremonies of his country. In stark and poignant detail he gives a compelling account of his kidnapping and his ordeal aboard the slave ship, his service in the French and Indian wars, as well as many other of his vicissitudes and adventures until he finally settles in England, where he becomes a key figure in the British abolitionist movement.
Skillfully written with a wealth of grossing detail, this volume powerfully illustrates the nature of the black experience in slavery, making it essential reading for students of African-American history and anyone interested in the struggle for equal rights and human dignity.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Classics, Biography, Memoir, Africa, Autobiography

184 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1789

About the author

Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was one of the most prominent Africans involved in the British movement of the abolition for the slave trade. Although enslaved as a young man, he purchased his freedom and worked as an author, merchant, and explorer in South America, the Caribbean, the Arctic, the American colonies, and the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Madeline · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally regarded as one of the best slave narratives ever written, the book is Equiano describing his life, beginning with how he was kidnapped in Africa at age 11 and sold into slavery. The interesting thing about this book is that Equiano doesn't just survive the Middle Passage, but actually crosses the Atlantic multiple times, traveling from South America to England to the American Colonies to the Caribbean to the Middle East, all while trying to win his freedom. It's a passionate anti-slavery message, with Equiano unflinchingly recounting the horrors of the slave trade to make his readers cringe (I defy you to read his account of the Middle Passage, or how he mentions seeing 9 year old African girls raped by white men, without wanting to throw up) and making reasoned arguments against it. Whether or not the account is fully non-fiction (and I'll get to that), the fact remains that this is a very affecting story.

So many negative reviews of this book on Goodreads! I'm a little surprised, actually. Yes, it drags on for long stretches at a time while Equiano regales us with boring naval stories and tells us everything about his spiritual conversion, but what people are missing, I think, is that he's including these stories for a reason. He was writing for a white, male, upper-class audience in the 18th century, and those readers probably wouldn't have been too interested in reading 200 pages on why slavery is wrong and they're total assholes for supporting it. So Equiano throws in all the seafaring crap to keep his audience interested, and also prove what a loyal British subject he is. The religion aspect is the same thing: no one wants to listen to a heathen, so Equiano makes it clear that he's a devout Christian, and then uses scripture and Christian doctrine to support his arguments against slavery. All the boring parts are, in fact, a calculated effort to get more people to read his book and listen to what he has to say. (that doesn't make it much more interesting to read in the 21st century, of course, but you can't win them all)

And now, we discuss the ESCANDALO surrounding this book:
Okay, so in the book Equiano mentions that when he lived in the American colonies he was baptized as Gustavus Vassa. There is a record of this baptism, but this is what it says: "Gustavus Vassa - a Black born in Carolina 12 years old." Then, one of the ships Equiano worked on has a record of a crew member named "Gust. Weston" or "Gust. Feston" of "S. Carolina."

After scholars found this, there was an immediate academic shitstorm because omg Equiano might not actually have been born in Africa at all! This (very flimsy, in my opinion) piece of evidence has been enough for some people to disregard the book entirely, because if Equiano is a liar then why should we listen to anything he has to say?

At the risk of editorializing, these people are idiots. My class read a very good, very angry article by Cathy Davidson where she rips this argument apart, and basically boils it down to three main points: 1) Equiano's master might have had a very good reason for saying that he was born in the colonies rather than Africa, so they wrote that on the baptism record; similarly, it may have been easier for Equiano to say that he was born in South Carolina. Thousands of immigrants have done similar things, and it doesn't make them liars. 2) If Equiano was born in America and never made the Middle Passage, that doesn't mean his account of it isn't true because he could have heard about it from another slave. 3) If Equiano was in fact born in America, that doesn't diminish the importance of his narrative at all. In fact, it gives the book even greater significance because it means that the first American novelist was black. That fact alone means that this book should not be disregarded because it might not be entirely factual - whether or not Equiano was entirely truthful in his book is not the point at all.

Read for: Colonial Imagination

[Sasha · Rating 3 out of 5]

My wife was so excited when she found out I was reading this, because she says she now knows the worst possible answer to "What are you into?" "I'm pretty into 18th-century slave narratives." It's a good thing I'm already married, she says. Worst Tinder profile ever.

Anyway, so I'm pretty into 18th-century slave narratives, specifically this one book, the first major slave narrative, which was a ginormous success when it was published in 1789, going to eight editions and remaining continuously in print for a century, and helping to bring about the end of slavery in Britain. (I'm also into 19th-century slave narratives!)

And Olaudah Equiano's story has it all. Slavery! Naval warfare! Shipwreck! Arctic exploration! It's so action-packed that it feels wildly improbable, but Equiano was a public figure, a leading abolitionist, and most of his story is thoroughly documented. There's some pedantic debate about whether he was born in Africa or South Carolina. (The book begins in Africa and follows his capture and passage to the Indies.) The rest of it definitely happened.

The more unfortunate thing is that it's wildly boring. Equiano has a fascinating story, but he's a horrendous storyteller. Here's a story:

Just as our ship was under sail, I went down under the cabin, to do some business, and had a lighted candle in my hand, which, in my hurry, without thinking, I held in a barrel of gunpowder. It remained in the powder, until it was near catching fire, when fortunately, I observed it.

That's incredible, right? I'm almost impressed at his ability to make such a great story that boring. Wait 'til he starts talking about God, it's dire.

So this is sort of the Castle of Otranto of slave narratives: it's an inventor of the genre, and responsible for codifying many of its rules, but in itself it's not great literature. As slave narratives became a popular genre in the 19th century, they followed Equiano's three-act blueprint:

- The horrors of slavery are described
- There is a dramatic escape
- The author becomes a productive member of society.

The details here are unique, mostly due to Equiano's extensive naval career, but the basic arc is in place. More gifted writers - notably Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs and Solomon Northup - would make better literature with it in the coming century. Olaudah Equiano's book is important but not terrifically well-told; I can only really recommend it if, say, you're already pretty into 18th-century slave narratives.

[Warwick · Rating 3 out of 5]

On a 2007 British stamp

This dry but affecting autobiography is an important progenitor of what would later become known, especially in American contexts, as the slave narrative. Behind the uninspiring title (‘You might as well call it Some Words on a Page,’ my wife said), Equiano's life was an extraordinary one. Born somewhere among the Igbo peoples of West Africa, he was kidnapped by black slavers when he was eight or nine, taken to the coast, and sold to a British slave ship, which carried him first to Barbados and then to Virginia. Bought by a British officer, he served in the Royal Navy during the Seven Years War, and was later resold to a Quaker merchant from Philadelphia, who put him to work on a variety of his trading vessels and plantations in the American states and the Caribbean. Eventually, Equiano amassed enough money to purchase his freedom. He settled in London and continued to travel intermittently as a professional ship's steward, ultimately becoming a prominent voice in the abolitionist movement at the end of the eighteenth century. This memoir was published in 1789, a few days before Parliament began debating ending the British slave trade.

There are some acutely distressing scenes in here of the conditions of the Middle Passage and the treatment of slaves on the sugar islands; but the overwhelming effect is a more general one, of the profound degradation of living always according to the arbitrary control of another man. This comes across, if anything, even more powerfully because his owners for the most part are not sadists, but comparatively reasonable people who simply find it completely unremarkable to own another person. Nor does this end with his manumission, since in the West Indies there was ‘little or no law for a free negro’, meaning he had no legal recourse when he was robbed, cheated, or beaten, and it was not uncommon for black freemen to be simply restrained and loaded onto a boat anyway (Equiano sees this happen to a free black acquaintance).

By his own admission, he is no great writer, and although one obviously doesn't read this for its literary qualities per se, it is still a bit frustrating to see what should be amazing incidents or anecdotes thrown away in the midst of a paragraph. In Savannah, Georgia, for instance, he casually mentions:

I used to go for the cargo up the rivers in boats; and on this business I have been frequently beset by alligators, which were very numerous on that coast, and I have shot many of them when they have been near getting into our boats; which we have with great difficulty sometimes prevented, and have been very much frightened at them.

Some of the early passages, about his childhood in Africa, are clearly modelled, or even lifted, from contemporary travel literature, and there has been much scholarly debate over where Equiano was actually born (his greatest modern biographer, Vincent Carretta, concludes that he was probably born in South Carolina, which is what he told at least two clerks during his lifetime). Personally, given Equiano's deep religious commitment to honesty – and the fact that he doesn't strike me as a writer with much flair for making things up – I find it more reasonable to assume, per Occam's razor, that what he says here is substantially correct. But what do I know.

The religious conviction was an important part of Equiano's life: much of his book reads a lot like a conventional spiritual autobiography, with a lot of anxiety over the fate of his soul and many heartfelt Biblical quotations. As a modern reader, and not a religious one, I found these passages both tiresome and creepy. To me, his religious outlook just seems like one more imposition of Europeans on his inner life – and not even one of the easier ones to excuse, given that it is, mostly, the cause of a great deal of torment for him as he feels sure that he will be punished everlastingly after he dies. (Eventually he has a ‘born again’ moment of revelation which reassures him.) But for Equiano and, presumably, many of his contemporary readers, his Protestant faith was one of his most essential and significant qualities, and abolition was often couched in religious terms.

He describes slavery with intense practical detail, but also, fascinatingly, in more abstract terms, at one point calling it ‘a war within the heart of man’. (As a free sailor, he sometimes helped buy slaves himself.) The publication of this book was, among other things, a political weapon in the abolitionist fight, which by the late 1780s had most of the public on its side (though not many went as far as Anna Laetitia Barbauld, who stopped taking sugar in her tea). Unfortunately, the conservative backlash in Britain to the French Revolution took abolition off the table, and it wasn't till after the French were defeated at Trafalgar that the slave trade was finally made illegal in 1807. Equiano had died ten years previously – but his legacy had helped set the framework for the whole debate.

Random sidenote: in the 2006 film Amazing Grace (which is pretty good), he is played by, of all people, the singer Youssou N'Dour.

[Shovelmonkey1 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Olaudah Equiano and his interesting narrative provide an insight into a time and situation that few people survived to record or recall, and those that did survive were rarely ever literate. For this reason, and so many others, Equiano (or Gustavus Vassa as he was later christened) has a unique story to tell.

Kidnapped from his home in an Ibo village (Nigeria),Equiano is enslaved by people of his own race and traded between tribal groups for over nine months before he finally makes it to the coast where he is put on board a slave ship and forced to endure the horrors of what was known as the middle passage (the journey at the centre of the slavery triangle from Africa to the Americas). The mere fact that he survived this journey when millions of others died is a testament to his will to survive from the very beginning. Following this he was passed between many masters some who Equino says "used him well" and others who treated him with cruelty and tyranical violence. Having learned english, converted to christianity and befriended his master (a ships Captain), Equiano becomes a capable hand before the mast. He travels on numerous barques, sloops and brigs, making journeys from England to Spain, Portugal, Turkey, Jamaica, Georgia, Barbados and the Mosquito coast before savvy trading allows him to save enough money to purchase his deeds of manumission (essentially he bought his own freedom).

However, life as a free man is not simple in the late 18th century and life as a freed slave is even more difficult. Equiano spends half of his time being ripped off by treacherous white traders, ships captains and merchants and more than a few of the people he meets try to press gang him onto boats or sell him on as a runaway slave. Depsite these set backs Equiano, ever the optimist, maintains an outlook which constantly sees the best in everyone.

From the point of view of a maritime archaeologist who lives in works in Liverpool, I found this book interesting for a number of reasons;
Equiano visit Liverpool but provides no description aside from mentioning that he sails from here to Dublin. At this time Liverpool was at its peak of involvement in the slave trade and yet despite visiting Wales, London and even the Midlands, he never make a proper visit to the city where many of the Guineamen (slave ships) were berthed. It might be that the reputation of sailors town on the waterfront precluded a long stay; press ganging, abduction and murder were not uncommon here.

Equiano provides an excellent record of the ships he sails on, noting their type, their names and sometimes their captains or owners. It is interesting to note that near the beginning of his story most of the vessels plying their trade across the Atlantic are of 50 or 60 tons, however as his narrative progresses the vessels have increased in size and now exceed 150 tons. This is indicative of the wealth of the British Merchant fleets as well as advances in Maritime and ship building technology. This kind of increase in size can also be seen in records such as Gomer Williams' History of the Liverpool Privateers 1744 - 1812.

Equiano converts to christianity and mentally chastises himself for not living according to all ten commandments (he swear aboard ship and works on the sabbath meaning that he's only achieving a score of 8/10 on the commandments front), yet the white, so called christians; the very men whose religion he has adopted were the ones who enslaved him in the first place. Furthermore he rarely questions how any benevolent god can exist when millions of enslaved Africans are dying.

Equiano, as a free man, actively participates in the slave trade. He works on board boats which carry slaves and even goes to market on behalf of his employer to purchase slaves himself. At no point in his narrative does he express remorse for his part in the trade which was responsible for his own displacement or reflect on his new role at the other end of the perspective (yet he chastises himself for swearing and thus being ungodly). He even mentions that when buying slaves he preferentially selects his own countrymen. Later events in the narrative indicate that this was his way of ensuring that they were better treated and well fed; he knows that this is one way in which he can make their lives tolerable as it is not within his power to assure their comfort or safety in any other way.

Equiano also does a fantastic job of highlighting the perils of seafaring. He made dozens of voyages where some men were lucky to survive more than two or three and his narrative is full of near drownings, wreckings and head on collisions with other boats. Collisions with other vessels are in fact surprisingly numerous which is amazing when you consider the size of the Atlantic Ocean and the lack of formalised shipping lanes at this time!

A brilliant narrative and one that provides a first hand account of the slave trade - this book became a core part of the abolitionist literature when it was published. Well deserving of a place on the 1001 books list and unique in many ways.

[Matthew Ted]

[36th book of 2021. Artist for this review is English painter J. M. W. Turner.]

The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano is considered one of the first slave-narratives, and is certainly one of the first widely read narratives. It was published originally in 1789 and covers Equiano’s journey from slavery to freedom, heathenism to Christianity. Of course, it is a fairly significant book and will always be vitally important for a number of reasons, but it is also horribly jejune. The narrative is reported without much emotion and the paragraphs are long and bland. Even when “action” does occur, which there is a fair amount of, Equiano’s tone never really jumps, but continues on its matter-of-fact spiel.

On the very first page, Equiano says,

…and, did I consider myself an European, [sic] I might say my sufferings were great: but when I compare my lot with that of most of my countrymen, I regard myself as a particular favourite of Heaven, and acknowledge the mercies of Providence in every occurrence of my life.

I found this one of the most poignant lines in the book.

There are shocking reports from Equiano about what he saw, the treatments and punishments, and indeed, punishments he himself received. There are descriptions of great violence: the snipping of ears, the staking to the ground, the hangings, the burnings, the brandings.

I’ve seen it described as many things: a slave-narrative, a travel-narrative, a spiritual-narrative. I think it is all these. There is a vast amount of travelling in it, Equiano seemingly travelled the entire world. He learns to read and write, after learning English, first (he states, in the beginning, I had never heard of white men or Europeans). His inquisitiveness is presented fairly early on:

I had often seen my master and Dick employed in reading; and I had a great curiosity to talk to the books, as I thought they did, and so to learn how all things had a beginning; for that purpose I have often taken up a book, and have talked to it, and then put my ears to I, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.

This also shows how interesting Equiano’s narrative is, but also the incessant use of semi-colons and dull tone.

And he finds God, but those later pages and pages of his finding God were the most boring parts of the book. I usually find religion interesting but Equiano’s tone did it no favours. And, of course, the beginning of the novel outlines his (and his sister’s) kidnapping and his life as a slave thereafter. It falls into many genres.

It’s a rewarding slog, and his ending sentiment is worth the slog, I’d say. I won’t record it here, anyway. Equiano states at one point his desire to return to England and his affinity for it. For that reason I’ve chosen the below painting by Turner, a painting that I also find very fitting in both its beauty and horror. Through the horror of the autobiography there are also moments of beauty. For one, Equiano’s own journey is one to freedom and, I hope, happiness. But I was also touched by the kindness of strangers and the people willing to help him, even in the beginning. As a final note it sort of left me with the feeling that no matter what happens in the world and where we end up, there are always people of good heart.


"The Slave Ship, or Slavers Throwing Overboard the Dead and Dying—Typhoon Coming In—1840

[Linda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I went through a variety of stages while reading this book. First, I was very interested. The opening 40 pages drew me in. I was taken with this small boy being ripped from everything he knew. Then, Gustavus Vassa's interesting life got really boring. The story itself was riveting, but the writing was difficult to get through. It is, probably, typical of the time, but not for my own 21st century tastes. I powered through, because I think that this is, historically, an important book to read. Vassa's memoir is the only book that I know of in which an ex-slave documents the middle passage. As I continued to read, I became intrigued by Vassa's psychology and his conversion to Christianity. Chapter 10 was, particularly, fascinating. In it, Vassa spent a great deal of time writing about his spiritual struggles which was one of the most interesting dimensions of the book.

For his spiritual struggles, he never seemed to question his own complicity in slavery. As a free man, he purchased slaves and worked as an overseer. I don't write this as a judgment of Vassa. He lived with great integrity and, when he had the means, he fought strongly against slavery. I find it curious that as such a thoughtful person on the matters of slavery and Christianity that he did not tackle that question.

The best parts of the book were when Vassa shared of himself, not just the facts. This memoir is begging for a historical-fiction transformation. I would like to see an author keep true to the historical details of Vassa's life, but give us better writing and a more multidimensional person in Vassa.

[Olivia-Savannah · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was assigned reading for university. It mostly seemed long. Although there is no doubt that Olaudah Equiano had a very interesting and testing life, and has achieved and experience much, my personal interest was lost at some moments. He travels a lot and this is a travel narrative, but I'm not into sailing much. I was interested in the moments about how slaves and he himself were treated. Yet this just wasn't the read for me...

[Melissa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Now that was, indeed, an interesting narrative! The narrative may have been written in the language of the times, but even that had a hard time making this one boring. From slavery to freedom, to various sea voyages (England to America to the Arctic to Africa and back again) and disasters just barely escaping with his life and freedom. Definitely one we should have read in school!

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

I will not in any way dispute the importance of Equiano and his narrative; he is a brilliant example of a black Atlantic figure, providing an insightful (and remarkably verifiable) account of the black experience amid a predominantly white society and a powerful polemic for the abolitionist cause.

But my god is it a slow read. Anything even vaguely autobiographical can be difficult to rate; it’s somebody’s life after all. But that does not make it impervious to criticism: Equiano’s language lacks economy and heart.

The Interesting Narrative is superlative if you are looking into the concept of double consciousness, as defined by W. E. B. Du Bois. Equiano exists on the boundary between African and British identities, being at once both, and fully neither. He is deeply affected by how readily others define him as African, despite his efforts to acculturate to British standards. That being said, I won’t comment on the disputed authenticity of Equiano’s African heritage, documents having been unearthed as naming Virginia his place of birth. Whilst this makes his account of the Middle Passage far less powerful, it is clear that we are underestimating his literary merit if he did in fact invent an African identity so convincingly.

Important but agonisingly dull.

[Leni Iversen · Rating 3 out of 5]

What a life!
The author apologises if the reader finds his story a bit dull, and maintains that it is only because he sticks strictly to the truth with no embellishments. But the truth sometimes beggars belief, and it is frankly astonishing that a life so full of wild adventure and changing fortunes can be rendered so dry and unexciting. Apparently practically everything in these memoirs can be backed up and documented by other sources, so the reader can only marvel and not disbelieve. And I would marvel, I did marvel, it's just that I would have marvelled so much more if the wildest events hadn't been tersely summarized in a few neutral sentences before moving on to the next adventure without so much as a change of paragraphs. Equiano only plays lip-service to the adventure. His focus is on showing that his people are, well... people! And that slavery is both morally wrong and economically unsound.

The Narrative is as such both Interesting and not very. But it is a well of information on the 18th century slave trade, and the conditions trafficked Africans had to live under whether enslaved or emancipated. Perhaps it is a mercy that Equiano uses a brief informative style rather than a more evocative account. The descriptions of the slave ships and the various punishments meted out to slaves in the West Indies for the smallest infractions, real or perceived, are hard enough to read as it is. But as Equiano was used to getting neither justice nor mercy from white people, he doesn't leave it at descriptions of the gross brutality and injustices encountered. No, he starts with the Bible, and tries to establish a link between the people of Africa and the lost tribe of Israel. Considering how the Jews have been treated in Europe over the centuries it seems a desperate move to base a claim to justice and freedom on such a parallel. He further argues that lack of ability stems not from lack of intelligence due to skin colour, but lack of education, nutrition and opportunity. I winced reading this, that it should be necessary to even argue this, and then I winced even more when it occurred to me that some people haven't received the memo even in the 21. century. Equiano also shows himself a more dedicated and pious Christian than most of the white people he meets, and the contemporary reader must have felt ashamed of the barbary of their countrymen. It is not surprising that his account helped abolish slavery in Britain. It is a pity it didn't do the same for America.

[Jean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Olaudah Equiano wrote his memoir in 1789 as a two-volume work. Following the publication of his book, he traveled throughout Great Britain as an abolitionist and author. He married Susanna Collen in 1792, and had two daughters. Equiano died in London in 1797.

The first part of the book describes Equiano’s native African culture and countryside. He was born in Eboe, in what is now Nigeria. He tells of his capture as a child along with his sister and being sold into slavery. He was sent to the West Indies. He was sold again and spent some time in Virginia working on a plantation. He was sold again; this time to the owner/captain of a merchant ship and was taken to England. While the Captain was ashore, Equiano was sent to school and learned to read and write English. He also learned about Christianity. He would then go to sea with the Captain. He was sold several times and ended up sold to a Quaker merchant who employed him in a variety of positions. He saved money and purchased his freedom.

The book is well written but in the style of the 1780s. His descriptions of extreme hardship and desperate conditions are interspersed with his astonishment at new sights and experiences. He also tells of his culture shock at his introduction to European culture and their treatment of slaves. This is an important book to read as it is one of the few first-hand narratives of slavery in the 1700s. It is also important to read as slavery is still a problem today primarily in Africa.

Jeff Moon does a good job narrating the book. Moon is an actor, singer, voiceover artist and audiobook narrator.

[Kathryn in FL · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have read a great deal of literature focused on slavery in the U.S., particularly the era preceding and following the American Civil War (or as Southern's say, the War Between the States). My focus has been primarily focused: the abolitionist point of few; the Underground Railroad; challenges to the Constitution to forbid human ownership; John Brown; living in the free states in community after slavery; even how those who once were enslaved or had ancestors, who were, chose to enslave others; the economic implications of slavery and after slavery was dismantled in the south.

This book was so engrossing to me. Olaudah Equiano was a brilliant man, who challenged the believe that blacks were not animals in the sense of being unequal to the Caucasian race. He taught himself to read and write by reading the Bible. He with help of several Caucasians sympathetic to stopping the slave trade by British merchants, supported his court petitions to obtain his freedom.

If you don't connect with this man's cry for freedom, please check your pulse. His story is riveting and anguished until he reached those in power with his arguments. This is a deeply affecting story.
Though I read this story 7 years ago, its story has remained in my consciousness.

[Kelly · Rating 4 out of 5]

For some reason, human suffering has always been slowly and steadily insinuating itself into what I enjoy reading. Sometimes though, the understanding of it does not seem universal anymore, at least, not like it used to be. Sympathy is not as strong as it once was, but in my house and home, I was raised to believe that all creatures were made equal, well, the human ones anyhow. A contemporary novel(and quite a thick one too!), Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese was a touching decendant of this man's story I think, at least the first few parts of it were. It was the hint that reminded me of Olaudah, whom I read of when last semester.

Olaudah captures the defining line between the "esteemed" white man and the "lowly" black man tautly, and he does not flinch from adding a few tasteful details. If I remember correctly though, there were a few things I didn't like, grammar mistakes or something rather. But the power behind every slave in time that had the guts to write about their grievances is one I wish I could carry with me day to day.

[Sidharth Vardhan · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was an adventurous life but the great English talent of making everything boring.

[Obsidian · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 13 percent.

I feel bad for not finishing this, but this whole book has been a struggle, which is why it sat on my currently reading shelf for months.

The book is a stream of consciousness writing by Olaudah Equiano. Mr. Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa was a prominent African living in London. He was a freed slave that supported the British movement to end the slave trade. This autobiography is considered to be one of the main reasons that the the Slave Trade Act of 1807 ended up being favored by many.

I feel terrible that I could not get into this book considering this is listed everywhere as a must read book for African Americans.

I just really could not get into the writing. I mean this was first published in 1789 and the wording and style of writing took a bit to get into. But at this point, the autobiography has no flow to it. There is just regurgitation of information being thrown at the reader and I can't take it anymore.

[Vaishali · Rating 4 out of 5]

Chilling account of a man born free in Africa, sold into slavery, spends most of life on the high seas, and finally acquires freedom. He experiences the treatment of blacks in its myriad forms on 3 continents. I was struck by how singularly good he is, how thoroughly honest, even relating some flubs.

Since his thoughts are mostly clear and compassionate, we have a few jewels of expression :

"Cowardice is ever the companion of cruelty."

"Is not the slave trade a bloody war with the heart of man?"

"Is it surprising that slaves when mildly treated should prefer even the misery of slavery to such a mockery of freedom?"

And lastly, from his splendidly written letter to the Queen of England detailing how slavery's end would increase wealth in Great Britain:

"What is inhumane must ever be unwise."

[Celestia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is from my son Dallin, age 12, who read the book:

I learned that you should control your temper. If you are mad at someone and start beating up on them it's your own fault if they don't listen to you. They won't listen to you because you have been beating up on them. i learned that the Africans had slaves among themselves.

Equiano was a great man. He was the most famous anti-slavery man in England. Even more than William Wilberforce. England was a safer place for slaves to be than the West Indies. This was even before slavery in England was outlawed.

By honest trade he made forty seven pounds of sterling. He gradually made money by selling glass tumblers which he bought and then sold for a profit and then other stuff. His master told him that he thought he would run away. Even though Equiano knew that his master expected him to run away he bought his freedom and left honestly.

He helped other slaves. He was cheering. After he bought his freedom once he was paid by his master to take a cargo of slaves to Georgia. The captain of the ship bragged that he was the best navigator there ever was and kept navigating him off course. They hit some rocks. There was a hole in the bottom of the ship. The captain wanted the hatches nailed shut to keep the water from draining in and sinking the top of the boat. If the hatches were nailed shut the slaves in the hull of the ship would drown. Equiano told the men not to nail the hatches shut because the slaves would die.

He felt that the reason why they had hit the rocks was because he had sworn about the ship and felt that God was angry. Some of the whites on the ship gave up hope when the ship hit the rocks and got drunk. Equiano nailed a piece of leather over the hole and took the ship's boat and dragged all the men, even the drunkards, in small groups, into the boat. Then they took the boat to a nearby small island.

The island was surrounded by reefs. To get over the reefs they had to climb out of the boat and drag it over with their legs. They would drop the men off on the island and go back to the ship for more. When the ship sunk all the crew and cargo slaves were safe on the island.

A few days later some of the men took the boat and off the coast of one of the Bahama islands they found a ship that was out sailing and trying to find wrecks and rescue the people from the wrecks. So all the people from Equiano's crew and the slave cargo were saved.

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

It is impossible to read this without being moved with a sense of pity at the sufferings the author underwent, revulsion at the institution of slavery, and anger at the injustice and discrimination he endured. The horrors of slavery are of course well known, but I was not prepared for the breathtaking injustices which continue to be visited on the author even once he gains his freedom. The Law, which was in any case deeply unjust, is discarded with impunity by the white oppressors. As a free man, the author faces beatings, thefts, attempts to kidnap and sell him back into slavery, and every imaginable insult: when he complains to the law, he is either ignored or driven away by the magistrate with beatings and curses. (Not in England though - the worst excesses occur in places like Georgia and the West Indies which are already thoroughly brutalised by slavery).

This is not a depressing read, however, because we cheer our author on as he overcomes seemingly insuperable obstacles to achieve friendship, freedom, respect, and a measure of financial independence - as well as a fabulous dress sense, as the front cover illustration testifies.

The author is not a Dumas or a Dickens, and he can be a bit Pooterish, but this adds to his charms. At one point he absent mindedly sticks a candle into a barrel of gunpowder to read by, and only notices just before he blows the whole ship apart....a delightful anecdote, showing his honesty (you'd hardly make up something like that) and his slightly other-worldly bookishness. Yes, the religious stuff is not to my taste, although I can well understand how he felt he had to hitch his waggon to something. But the whole thing is only 12 chapters long, and is therefore easily digestible.

[Owlseyes]

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano by Olaudah Equiano (1789)

in: https://www.theguardian.com/books/201...

[grllopez ~ with freedom and books · Rating 5 out of 5]

My review: https://www.greatbookstudy.com/2020/1...

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very interesting read. In his life, Olaudah was witness to every aspect of the salve trade. He was born into a well to do African family who owned slaves. He was captured by slave traders and enslaved himself. As a sailor he participated in, or was present at, all parts of the Triangular trade… slaves transportation from Africa to the Caribbean… rum, sugar and molasses from the Caribbean to the United States and cotton and tobacco from the Americas to Europe. He was bought and sold numerous times. He had good masters and very bad masters. He was treated well and he was beaten savagely. He became a businessman and eventually purchased his own freedom. He suffered the consequences of being a freeman. He returned to Africa to attempt missionary work. He called passionately for the abolition of slavery. His was an interesting life indeed and he was a talented writer for capturing it so well in his interesting narrative.

[Marc Kohlman · Rating 5 out of 5]

A moving epic autobiography! When I first saw the 2007 film "Amazing Grace", Equiano's (played by Youssou N'Dour) life, trials and accomplishments fascinated me so much that I was very eager to read his story. His prose is vivid, strong and deep with exquisite details and a human depth. As a person of African descent, I found myself identifying more with Equiano the further I read. All the while, imagining who my ancestors had been, where from Africa they hailed and how they survived the dreaded Middle Passage. This certainly is a literary work that transcends time and unveils the cruelty, perseverance and courage of the human spirit. A busy schedule drove me to put off reading this book for three years- yet I never lost interest or awe in this incredible story of a man who survived great adversity and bigotry to find hope and change the world. To be stripped of homeland, family, culture and identity is a pain no person should be dealt. Equiano endured all of these yet they did not kill his drive to learn, live and support the cause of Abolition. While the slave trade has long been abolished, there are nations and societies still rife with human trafficking, subjugation and oppression today. Just as in Equiano's era, we must take a stand and speak out against these injustices. I suggest everyone to read this book. From the first page to the last, the words will grip you and have you look not only at society but into your own heart.

[Nate · Rating 4 out of 5]

Okay, this book is a gem. I like reading old first-hand accounts like this because they make me realize how the ideas I have about the past and what life was like then, are all wrong.

On top of this, Olaudah is just and interesting person.

On top of that, I just found out that Olaudah's theory that his native people, the Igbo, were somehow connected to the Jews is correct. Amazing stuff.

[Elliot A · Rating 4 out of 5]

Truth be told, I was confused by this book, this "autobiography".

The title says The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano and it certainly was interesting. However, I kept asking myself why reading this autobiography felt more like reading Gulliver's Travels than a former slave's account of his life.

It was very abridged, leaving out the horrors and tragedy that a slave may have witnessed by the hands of their owner. I sincerely do not want to sound bloodthirsty or in need of sensational stories, but the nature of the author's abridged narration left much to the imagination with respect to the brutality this person must have witnessed and endured.

At the end, all the reader is left with is a succession of travel logs, mostly describing naval procedures and including naval language that leaves the modern reader at a loss from time to time.

As a whole this book was still quite educational, since it provided the narration from the point of view of the sufferer and one, who actually lived during the 1700's.

Once in a while throughout the narration and especially towards the end the reader can feel the anguish and long-lasting effects slavery has had on the author/protagonist.

Overall, I still found it an interesting and engaging read. It is a worthwhile reader to anyone involved in the study of black Atlantic literature.

ElliotScribbles

[Eleanor]

Olaudah Equiano wrote his autobiography as a free man, living in London, but his childhood and youth were spent in slavery. He was captured very young, probably only aged nine or ten, and describes some time spent as an enslaved child in Africa before being sold to white traders and taken overseas. There’s some controversy over where he was born. He said he was of good family, and gives detailed descriptions of his home village and local customs which would suggest he was an Igbo, from what is now Nigeria. But there are also documents—a ship’s register; his baptism record—that list his place of birth as South Carolina. It is also possible to locate many of the details he gives about Igbo life and society in other books from the era, which he could have read. It’s hard to know what to make of these discrepancies. On the whole I think it’s worth believing Equiano’s own narrative account of abduction, but it’s also worth remembering that his Africanness formed part of his book’s commercial value. Very few narratives by formerly enslaved people contained memories of Africa; it served as a USP and an indicator of authenticity, which meant there was some incentive to claim it.

Anyway, he had a pretty amazing life. Being enslaved in the eighteenth century had at least one similarity to being a sex worker in the eighteenth century (my thesis subject): a lot depended on where you were, and no two randomly selected people had identical experiences. Equiano had a reasonable amount of luck. He never worked on a plantation, for example, and some care was taken to educate him. As a child and youth, he served as a personal valet and bodyman. The first man who owned him, Michael Henry Pascal, was a naval officer, and Equiano learned sailing and soldiering while traveling with him. (Pascal insisted on “renaming” him Gustavus Vassa, after a famous Protestant expansionist king of Sweden, about whom a popular play had recently been written. Equiano went by this name throughout most of his life; he used his birth name only when writing the Narrative.) He experienced combat during the Seven Years’ War in Canada, the Mediterranean, and the Caribbean. Later, owned by a Quaker merchant named Robert King (who knew Quakers were slaveholders?!), he served as sailor, clerk, and merchant, trading between the West Indies and American East Coast cities. He undertook private trade on the side, and eventually bought his own freedom, though he continued working for King as a free man for a few more years. He wanted to be back in England more than anything, though, and soon returned to London. There he apprenticed to a hairdresser, got a gig on the Phipps Arctic expedition, had an evangelical conversion experience which was to remain lifelong, and became involved with abolitionist groups. After the Narrative was published, he married a white woman named Susan Cullen in Ely, Cambridgeshire, had two daughters with her, and died aged fifty-one.

The writing is perfectly fine; as the scholarly introduction to my edition notes, it would be silly and unfair to hold Equiano’s prose to the standards of a professional fiction writer, a Defoe or Smollett. Yet there are some Defoe-like qualities to Equiano’s meticulous descriptions of how he carried on his private trade—very reminiscent of similar passages from Robinson Crusoe (1719) and Moll Flanders (1722)—and virtually every shipboard scene, but especially the early naval battles, reminded me of Roderick Random (1748). Equiano doesn’t have the natural flair of the novelist for shaping material into a scene; he often mentions something utterly fascinating that he saw on his travels, but rarely chooses to actually dramatise the presentation. What he does have are fantastic powers of noticing. He casually says that the dances of the Greeks in Smyrna are much like those of his countrymen, the Igbo; he’ll tell you he once saw a baby crocodile sold for sixpence in Savannah, Georgia; he mentions an interracial marriage ceremony he saw in the West Indies that took place on a boat, because the parson wouldn’t do it in a church but would do it outside. It’s the kind of skill that decades of being owned by someone else would certainly sharpen, a constant awareness.

A final note on the edition: I read a Norton Critical Edition, edited and introduced by Werner Sollors. The intro was informative, although Sollors promotes some skepticism about Equiano’s birthplace. The notes are often a little on the unnecessary side (explaining that “discover” means “reveal” in this era, for example), although NCEs are often used in schools and colleges, so maybe their imagined reader isn’t familiar with archaic usages. The best part of any NCE is the contextual documents, including reviews of the work by its contemporaries and excerpts from modern literary criticism. Paul Edwards’s introduction to his groundbreaking modern edition of the Narrative from 1969 is an especially useful inclusion. The edition also reprints Catherine Obianju Acholonu’s article explaining how she traced Equiano’s village, from 1987. Her methodology and conclusions have been almost universally criticised by other historians—a fact that this edition does not mention—and a quick scan of her publications on Wikipedia suggests a trend of self-serving scholarship, so… pinch of salt.

Anyway, I’m very pleased I read this. There’s a lot to think about in terms of authenticity, authorship and self-advertising that speaks to my current thesis chapter as well as the project more generally, and it’s a fascinating window into an extraordinary life. A high note on which to end 20 Books of Summer! Source: local library #LoveYourLibrary

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book in the Dhahran Library at Aramco in Saudi Arabia. I chanced upon it, having heard only slightly of Equiano, while researching slaves brought to the African and Arabian coasts by Arab slavers. It was enlightening and, as usual with such books, it filled in gaps of my ignorance of history. Many of the ruling families in these regions are suffused with descendants like Equiano.

[ren · Rating 1 out of 5]

As much as I respect this book’s intent and history, it is by far the most boringly written slave narrative I’ve read. For people interested upon this topic I’d much recommend Harriet Jacobs’ “Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl” instead.

[Ian · Rating 4 out of 5]

As one of the earliest slave memoirs, Olaudah Equiano’s book is of course a priceless historical document. Kidnapped from his home village in West Africa at the age of about 10 or 11, Equiano was traded between a variety of African owners before arriving on the coast to be shipped across the Atlantic. He comments that prior to this he had never heard of either Europeans or of the sea, and he vividly describes the psychological shock of being taken aboard the slave ship.

Equiano is quite open in saying that his time as a slave, if bad enough, was a less horrifying experience than for most of those taken on the Middle Passage. He was initially bought by a naval officer, and in the company of this officer he saw action against French ships during the Seven Years War. Having been taken from his own parents at a young age, Olaudah seems to have transferred some of his need for parental affection to his owner, who treated him reasonably well, and he expected to buy his freedom from the share of prize money (from captured French ships) he had earned as a crew member. Sadly, without the least compunction his owner simply gave him away to another officer who in turn sold him to a businessman in the West Indies. This new owner utilised Equiano in his shipping business, a role that allowed him to do some buying and selling of his own between the various islands. Despite being robbed several times by white men, against whom he had no legal redress, he eventually bought his freedom for £40, a considerable amount in those days.

From the book we get an idea of how the life of a free black man was extremely precarious in the West Indies and in the southern states of America. On several occasions Equiano narrowly escaped being kidnapped and sold back into slavery. It must have been unbearable to live like this, and Equiano moved to England, where the chances of being kidnapped were very much reduced (though they still existed). Strangely enough, he then seems to have suffered from some sort of depression, and contemplated suicide. It is sometimes said that the achievement of a long-desired goal leads to a temporary ecstasy followed by a let-down, and perhaps this is what happened here. Equiano brought himself out of depression by becoming a passionate Christian.

The above misses out much of the author’s remarkable life. His achievements were extraordinary when you consider how much the odds were stacked against him, and no modern reader can fail to be outraged at what he describes. At the same time, the text is a little ponderous at times, and the modern reader has to adjust to 18th century terminology (for example, Equiano refers to being robbed as being “imposed upon”). I still found this a fascinating read. It’s also an education into 18th century life, if often a rather depressing one.

[Dawn Michelle · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read Around the World: Benin

[Chloe · Rating 2 out of 5]

The Interesting Narrative was required reading on a Black Atlantic and slavery module on my course. I have never read an autobiography before, let alone a slave narrative, so I was unsure what to expect going into this.

The Interesting Narrative recalls Olaudah Equiano's life and journey starting in Africa, where he was kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery. Equiano recorded his story to bring about the abolition of slavery, alerting his readers to the horrific situation endured by those who were enslaved and Equiano is effective in doing this. Towards the end of the narrative, there was a growing emphasis upon religion and spirituality, something that became important to Equiano throughout his life, but I personally found it to be a little drawn out and not particularly interesting either. There has been some debate about whether Equiano was really from Africa and if the journey he describes is truthful or not, but the horrors he writes about are important whether it was experienced by him personally or not.

Once I got into the narrative, the writing was not too difficult. However, as my reading pace slowed towards the end, it became more of a struggle to get through. The descriptions were also a little jumbled, making it difficult to clearly picture what was happening.

Overall, it was an interesting read, especially as it addresses an important part of history that must be remembered and learned from. I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed reading this considering the serious issue it addresses, but I would still recommend it especially to those interested in this topic.

Rating - 2/5
★★

There is also a link to this review on my blog here!