Sold as a Slave

by Olaudah Equiano

In an adventurous and extraordinary life, Equiano (c.1745-c.1797) criss-crossed the Atlantic world, from West Africa to the Caribbean to the USA to Britain, either as a slave or fighting with the Royal Navy. His account of his life is not only one of the great documents of the abolition movement, but also a startling, moving story of danger and betrayal.

"Great Journeys" allows readers to travel both around the planet and back through the centuries - but also back into ideas and worlds frightening, ruthless and cruel in different ways from our own. Few reading experiences can begin to match that of engaging with writers who saw astounding things: great civilisations, walls of ice, violent and implacable jungles, deserts and mountains, multitudes of birds and flowers new to science. Reading these books is to see the world afresh, to rediscover a time when many cultures were quite strange to each other, where legends and stories were treated as facts and in which so much was still to be discovered.

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

111 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published February 1, 2007

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

[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 – and for anyone poised to attack me with the specious argument that the time period sanctions such hideous writing, then I recommend you read anything by Mary Wortley Montagu who published incredibly elegant and moving travel narratives about seventy years earlier.

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.

[Richard · Rating 5 out of 5]

The story, or at least excerpts of the story, of a young boy (our author), kidnapped and sold into slavery.

Offers a useful insight into the life of someone born free, yet sold into slavery. Handed off from owner to owner, learning to speak different languages, reading, writing, and arithmetic, fighting with the English fleet against the French, and ending up in the Caribbean working for a kind owner, this book is a first person narrative of the life of a slave.

I found the author's mind set, how he survived and adapted to his situation, to be fascinating, scary, depressing, and uplifting, all in one short book.

[lildebbie57 · Rating 1 out of 5]

Just could not get into this one. It seemed like a list of occurrences rather than a narrative I could connect to at heart or in mind.

[Daren · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hmm, this is an odd one.
Firstly we are warned in the introduction that the "famous opening section, dealing with life in Benin, is a fabrication... however the narrative that follows the slavery [is] absolutely authentic."
Which puts me a bit of a disadvantage, now struggling to accept the authenticity of the whole book...

Anyway, this is a series of excerpts from the authors The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself.
The excerpts read ok as excerpts, but the writing style is fairly basic - just a chain of events explained. The descriptions of his slavery, and the events around this, the treatment he received (both bad and good) are terrible and interesting in equal measure, and he obviously did well to achieve his education and ability to communicate a book, but I assume (my reading in this field is limited) there are better written biographies - probably not relying on a fictional start!
I can't settle between two or three stars, it would have been 2.5, otherwise I struggle with the three stars I gave the excerpt from Thesigers excellent Arabian Sands - Across the Empty Quarter, which was only because I thought the selection of excerpts was poor.

[Samir Rawas Sarayji · Rating 3 out of 5]

This short book is based on passages taken from the longer autobiographical work 'The Interesting Narrative'. The opening paragraph, by way of introduction, tells the reader that the 'famous opening section, dealing with life in Benin, is a fabrication' whereas the rest of the narrative about slavery is authentic. Talk about blending fiction and non-fiction! Publishers today would have a hoot with a made up section of an autobiography.

In any event, the narrative is just that, narrative. It's a good resource for anyone interested about slavery. As far as reading it for pleasure goes, it's a bit on the dreary side. It doesn't help either that the style is stiff and dry, which I'm not going to hold against a former slave who had to suffer and learn myriad number of skills to survive and please his continually changing white Masters. I doubt literary skills were one of the prerequisites for a slave or something a freed slave would have the time to develop.

In light of this, I have given the book 3 stars because it's still an important contribution to human history. Ignoring the boring style, the subject matter itself reveals its inherent horrors as usual, but there is nothing new in that. Yes, the horrors are horrible, even atrocious, but any well-read person knows this already.

[Shawn · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago I read the excellent William Wilberforce biography, "Amazing Grace," by Eric Metaxas and was greatly intrigued by the influence of Oloudah Equiano in the campaign to end slavery in the United Kingdom. With a sense of heightened curiousity, I found a copy of his autobiography, "The Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African," and devoured it in a short time. This book, "Sold as a Slave," is a republication of sections of his longer biography and covers his account of his kidnapping and descent into slavery, the atrocities of the slave trade, accounts of slavery's cruelty and injustice, and pleas to bring the inhumanity of it to an end. For anyone interested in a firsthand account of slavery, life on English warships, or the history of 18th century England, this book is an excellent primary source, but I would recommend the full autobiography.

[Emilie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will definitely be looking out for the full account. This excerpt was very interesting and heartbreaking.

[Hope Black · Rating 5 out of 5]

must read

[Raman · Rating 2 out of 5]

As the title suggest its a story of a boy who was kidnapped from his country and was sold as a slave.
Book lacks narration, the author has just mentioned the events of his life in chronological order with glimpse of sufferings and hardships endured by other slaves.
Olaudah means the fortunate one, and his story shows he was lucky enough (not lucky to be kidnapped) to get masters who loved and nutured him and given him opportunities to learn.Most of the book covers the adventures when he was on the navy ship.

[Dee-Ann · Rating 4 out of 5]

Picked this up from the library give-away shelf. Fascinating short novel about the hardships of slavery from first account, but also commentary of the author's extraordinary life and experiences, including being involved in naval battles as he spent a lot of his servitude on naval ships. I had put off reading this book, expecting to be depressed by the harsh situation, but even though there were harrowing recounts (especially in the last 10 pages of the book) I was more astounded by the experiences of the author and emerging beliefs and understanding.

[Ape · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an extract book of a much larger book. Part of a set of 20 about historical travel - although unlike many of the other books in the series, this one isn't about a rich guy travelling about for fun. The story of Olaudoh's life starts in Benin, growing up in the 1700s, then when he is about 11 or 12 he is captured and sold to slavers. He ends up on a ship bound for England, bought by a man who goes into the Royal Navy, so Olaudah gets himself a Royal Navy career as well. There's quite a bit in here about maritime battles and ships and navy stuff, which if I'm honest I found quite dull. Anyway, just when the poor lad thinks he might be able to get his freedom, he is sold again and shipped off to the West Indies. He's owned by a Quaker from Philadelphia who doesn't treat him too badly in the grand scheme of things (but I'm sorry, owning anyone as a slave is to treat them badly), but he witnesses the utterly inhumane and unecessarily cruel treatment of other slaves. Honest to God it just beggers belief. By what right did people think any of this was ok? It is truely disgusting, and damn right statues of such people should be pulled down. We don't need to memoralise their memory.
In the brief biography at the start the book mentions that Olaudah probably wasn't born in Benin but actually on a plantation in the States. I don't suppose it massively matters, for he'll have met people who were born over there and experienced all kinds of things. He's trying to write a life experience to make a point. In the 1700s.... and we're 2021 now and ok, slavery to that extent is no longer an issue, things are an incredible lot better than those days but even now we hear of racism. Are we just as a species determined to hate and make other people miserable?

[Felicity Terry · Rating 2 out of 5]

Part of a Penguin series of books that takes an extract from various larger works. Sold As A Slave is taken from his autobiography, The Interesting Slave, which is considered by some to be one of the greatest documents on the nature of slavery. Odd to me given that we are warned in the introduction that the first portion of the book, the first of its 20 or so 111 pages, is in fact pure fabrication.

Anyway ...

What I'd describe as a list of occurrences .... perhaps the price to be paid for reading extracts from a book rather than the book in full ... to me there was no real flow to the narrative

A harrowing read no matter how many times you read such accounts but for me personally there wasn't anything new in the way of the horrors of the slave trade - might I suggest this as an ideal primary source to begin reading about such events. However what is different is that rather than set in America this chronicles the life of a slave who ended up in England and, in parts, details life aboard a naval ship.

Copyright: Tracy Terry @ Pen and Paper

[Sandra Straub · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very emotional read. A story told about a child being kidnapped multiple times, sold into slavery multiple times, having luck with a few of his Masters for years, being sold into the West Indies where slavery was tortuous, unlike the slavery he knew. A scared boy placed on a warship, forced to fight, in fear of everything he doesn't understand, trusting the wrong people due to his innocent and pure heart. But his pure heart never wavered over his lifetime, even after having seen and forced to partake in unholy situations.

[Jenn Phizacklea · Rating 3 out of 5]

For what it’s worth, this book was not at all what I expected.
Not wanting to sound callous, but as most people would, I think, knowing the subject matter, I thought I was in for a more pitiful tale than this actually is.
Of course, it definitely has confronting passages, but it doesn’t dwell on these, and therefore, is far more broad in its view than a sustained attack on 19th century slavery, which is what I was anticipating.

[Arwen · Rating 1 out of 5]

Literally felt like white propaganda for 80% of this book. He seemingly has little negative experiences loves his time on the war ships, and likes his owners so much he can't bare to part with them. He did not mention abolition or hating the trade until the last chapter and last 10 pages, where it finally talks about the horrors of the slave trade.

[Michael Wirdnam · Rating 3 out of 5]

An intriguing insight into the slave trade, its victims and its perpetrators.

[Bookwormthings · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fascinating, I will give it to my son to read when he is a little older.

[Sean · Rating 3 out of 5]

Excellent

[Adam]

Turns out it is not fun

[Alex Jones]

I feel like it would probably be wrong to assign an autobiographical account of slavery an arbitrary star rating.

[The Lit Lounge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writing: 4.5
Content: 3
Overall: 3.75
Personal enjoyment rating: 3.2

[Sobriquet]

I would be interested to read a biography of Olaudah Equiano, I think more of a cultural context would have helped me here. The extracts in this abridged edition seemed carelessly chosen and at times the narrative jumps forward in time with little explanation. Also it ends before Equiano has attained his freedom. I would recommend this book but not in this edition.