Reading 1001 discussion

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.

5/5 stars for me!

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, that I had never heard of until recently....well worth the read!

I wouldn't necessarily say that I enjoyed this, but I found it to be an important read. He describes the horrors of slavery followed by his constant struggle to be treated fairly after buying his freedom. Equiano also describes a lifetime of travel all over the world and his journey to Christianity. Although I had read about most of these aspects of slavery, this was the first time I read a first person narrative. I was also amazed by the amount of travel that he continued to do, even when it seemed he could have settled down in one place and had a somewhat safer life.

This chronicle of the life of Olaudah Equiano starting in Africa in his birth year 1745 and traveling up through 1787, is an amazing first person narrative of the physical and moral struggles of a slave who managed to purchase his freedom and find a Christian god during a time when no black person had any rights in the West Indies. Olaudah Equiano was known as Gustavus Vassa most of his life and managed through extreme perseverance, talent, luck (and as he explained, the goodness of his God) to build up skills as a servant, steward, hairdresser, trader and sailor and escape hosts of ship wrecks plus the horrors of slavery and the treatment of any and all black people even when "free", at the hands of white men. Although the tone and pacing is not as engaging as the actual story, it does prompt many emotions when he decides to go back out to sea and back to the West Indies even though he knew and we know that he is headed for trouble. It was like the young women in a horror movie opening up the cellar door even though I am yelling at her not to do that. As the aim of the book is to bring home the conditions of the black African in the Caribbean to an English reader at the time and therefore influence the political activities around the ruling against continuing the slave trade, there is much of the tale that is directed at good Christians and their belief in the afterlife. There are repeated tales of being promised something by a white man who then reneges on that promise. The repetitions build up into a forceful indictment but makes for less than thrilling story telling. It is an interesting side note that the Muslims in Turkey treated him much better than most of the Christians he encounters.
Well worth the read and I learned a great deal.