The Life of Olaudah Equiano

For this review, I think I’m going to start by saying all of the things that I didn’t really like about it before I move on to talking about what I thought its strengths were. First of all, it was boring. Not all of it was, and I’ll get to that, but long stretches of it were just “this happened to me”, “that happened to me”, “I saw this interesting thing”, “this is what it’s like in X place I visited”; just a long list of things like that. I actually smiled in the last chapter when he wrote “I therefore hasten to the conclusion of a narrative, which I fear the reader may think already sufficiently tedious.” He goes on to say that all the things he wrote about were important to him in some way, and I have no show more doubt of that, but the fact remains that I wasn’t interested in most of them.

I would also like to mention that I think that Olaudah Equiano was not a great poet. Sorry, but the long poem he included towards the end was just too straightforward and not poetic enough.

But there were portions of this book that were definitely much better than the others. Of course, in this case “better” does not mean “enjoyable”. The descriptions he gives of slavery in the West Indies are particularly heart-breaking. But it is in these sections that the real strength of the book reveals itself.

I think the first strength is that it’s realistic. I discussed this way back when I first starting reading this for my American Lit class and I was comparing it to Oroonoko. Everything he writes has the ring of authenticity to it. He’s telling the absolute truth, he knows what he’s talking about, and he makes both of these things clear from the start. Being able to trust the author really is instrumental in being able to take anything out of this first-hand account.

The second strength is the perspective. Of course his position as a former slave provides an inside perspective, a perspective from the point of view of a victim rather than an aggressor, but it’s about more than that as well. What I really noticed is that it’s not at all like reading a history book. Olaudah Equiano wrote about slavery in a time period when it still exists. He had no idea what the future will be like, and he would never have been able to guess what my perspective would be, reading this over 200 years later. He’s firmly placed within his time, and that makes it seem so much more real. He sees the problem of slavery as a very complex one. He wants it to be eliminated, and we see him trying a variety of approaches towards that end in the way of persuasion as he’s writing.

As I was reading some of his arguments against slavery, I found it very easy to compare the way that he was approaching the discussion to the way that we discuss important issues of our own day. Someday we might look back on the very things we’re arguing about right now and say “Oh, of course we should have done this” or “Of course that person was right”, but right now we are in the thick of it, just like he was. It’s interesting to consider.

So it was kind of boring, but, overall, it was worth it. show less

A remarkable book, both because of the vivid and startling story Olaudah Equiano relates, and because for an 18th century text by a writer steeped in the King James' version of the Bible it is an unusually easy read. About half the book covers Equiano's experience of slavery, from capture as a child, movement across Africa to the coast where he was put on a slave ship, the Atlantic crossing, then his experiences in North America and the Caribbean as an enslaved man. Equiano seems not opposed to slavery, but felt that as practised in his homeland it was more humane than by white men in the plantations, and he campaigned for the Altantic trade to stop (which would be achieved a decade after his death). When he is finally able to free show more himself from chattel slavery, by paying his owner £40 (perhaps £6,000 in 2024), he is clearly safer in the West, yet kept returning by ship to the Americas, each time to be abused as if still a slave. I ended up asking myself why on earth he kept returning, once he'd worked out that the typical white man involved in a the plantation economy was likely to be a scoundrel. I am probably less interested in ships and marine engagements than the author was, although he opens a window on the maritime and trading world of the period, and the expedition to Spitzbergen in search of the North East Passage is fascinating. show less

By his own account, former slave Olaudah Equiano (known in life by the slave name Gustavus Vassa; born c. 1745) was an exemplary success. Kidnapped from his native West Africa at the age of an eleven, he endured the horrific Middle Passage. He made himself indispensable to several different owners and was finally able to purchase his freedom in 1766. Blessed with an entrepreneurial spirit and an unshakable belief that he was especially favored by God, Olaudah navigated several layers of society in the West Indies and England, and even sailed to Greenland as part of an Arctic expedition. During one period of his life, he was even involved in the slave trade, but eventually he became known as an early abolitionist. He married a British show more woman and had two children with her before passing away in 1797.

The Interesting Narrative is, well, interesting as a historical document, but I have to admit I found Olaudah rather insufferable. I found this passage, from Chapter 9, remarkable (it also gives an idea of Olaudah's writing style): "With a light heart I bade Montserrat farewell, and never had my feet on it since; and with it I bade adieu to the sound of the cruel whip, and all other dreadful instruments of torture; adieu to the offensive sight of the violated chastity of the sable females, which has too often accosted my eyes; adieu to oppressions (although to me less severe than most of my countrymen); and adieu to the angry howling, dashing surfs. I wished for a grateful and thankful heart to praise the Lord God on high for all his mercies!" As long as he doesn't have to see bad things happening, he's ok about it.

I don't recommend this book to the casual reader. show less

http://nwhyte.livejournal.com/1834848.html

This is the autobiography of an 18th-century slave, sold from his home in West Africa as a child to work on the West Indian fleet and around the Anglophone Atlantic shores, before becoming a freeman, missionary and political activist. It's an absolutely riveting first-hand account, not only for the awful conditions of slavery (and indeed for freed blacks) in the British empire of the day, but also because of Equiano's unabashed enthusiasm for naval combat (reminiscent of Patrick O'Brian, with the important difference that Equiano was actually there) and his conversion to a fairly open-minded but pious evangelical Christianity. I see that some recent scholars have been trying to assert that show more Equiano was actually born in South Carolina, but I find his narrative of Africa and the Middle Passage completely compelling, and he comes across as a completely honest witness even if sometimes a bit scatty on long-ago detail.

One point that I haven't seen mentioned elsewhere is that as far as I can tell, Equiano was one of the first people to use the phrase "human rights". Wikipedia thinks that "The term human rights probably came into use some time between Paine's The Rights of Man [1791] and William Lloyd Garrison's 1831 writings in The Liberator", but Equiano's Interesting Narrative is published in 1789, the year that the French National Assembly passed its Déclaration des droits de l'homme et du citoyen and two years before Paine. He uses the phrase twice, both times in descriptions of slavers brutally breaking family ties, rather than in talking of any of the other numerous abuses he witnessed.

Anyway, this is an amazing book whose title rather under-sells it to a modern audience. show less

I enjoyed the beginning of this autobiography because it like going in a time machine back to area closed to Benin in the 1750's. The early part of his childhood. It was interesting to read about the customs and culture of the area that he came from. Slavery was common in that area of Africa in that time period. The author said that music and dance were more than attachment to owning material goods. I have met a couple from the same area and drum music and dance is very important, so that may remain constant over time. I would have to research to make certain.

The author was captured with sister and later separated and traded for shells and traded again several times while a child. Then he was captured and put on a slave ship. Because he show more had no experience with ships, he and other captured people did not think that the big ship would be able to move so they thought when the sails filled and the ship moved that it must have been magic. When the ship reached its destination, he was sold several times and was landed in Falmouth and saw snow for the first time and thought was salt. Several times, he was afraid of being eaten, but those thoughts faded away with time.

Then this book gets bogged down with lot flowery language and talk of his found religion. That is were it became difficult to continue reading and I ended up skimming. show less

To tell you the truth, when I first looked at the cover of “The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, I didn’t seem the least intrigued or excited. For one, it was nonfiction and to me nonfiction is not a type of book I like to read; especially if it is long like 200 or 300 pages. However, when I started reading Olaudah’s narrative, I began to enjoy it because the way Olaudah describes his life seems like a story or adventure. In my opinion, I thought the beginning and middle of the novel was the most interesting. In the beginning of the memoir, Olaudah introduces the reader to his country, culture, birth, parents, and some of his childhood memories before slavery. In addition, in the beginning of the narrative, show more Olaudah describes how his life transformed when him and his sister were captured, sold into slavery, and then separated. He then describes his life in a slave ship, and the horrors he experienced and witnessed as a slave. He also describes the cruelty shown towards the slaves, and the horrible living conditions; however, he describes these in brief because he says they are too disturbing and shocking. Furthermore, Equiano describes his journeys on slave ships and British naval ships to West Indies, Virginia, England, Mediterranean, Georgia, Martinique, Montserrat, Turkey, Portugal, Grenada, Jamaica, and the North Pole. He also describes how his life changed during these voyages. For instance, he gained a lot of knowledge intellectually and spiritually and religiously, which had a great impact on his life. For example, he gained knowledge in sea navigation and compasses so he spent most of his life on these ships working for no pay as a sea navigator on slave ships and British naval ships. This made him less treated as a slave. Equiano also describes how his life transformed, from hopeless to hopeful ,when he found God and Christianity. Later on in the narrative, in the middle and towards the end, Olaudah describes his schemes and efforts to gain his freedom through money. During his voyages, he buys goods and sells them in other places to earn money to buy his freedom, but this was when he was in the hands of a kind captain and a kind master. He goes through many struggles to obtain enough money to buy his freedom, but through hard work and determination, he eventually acquires the money and gains his freedom and happiness. Although he gains his freedom, some of his kind captains and masters he admired and respected ,begged him to stay longer because he was a fine and excellent sea navigator and without the comfort of him, they would lose their happiness. Although, Equiano wanted to leave and get on with his life and visit other places, he agreed to stay longer. In my opinion, I think it is extremely weird and strange that Olaudah, after many years, did not go straight to Africa to find his parents and his long lost sister because in the beginning he describes how close and attached he was to his mother and sister. It is also strange that throughout the narrative he does not say anything about how much he misses his parents and sister. To tell you the truth, I did not understand that at all. In addition, I thought the end tended to drag a bit and became less interesting because Olaudah tended to throw out too much specific information, like dates, names of his captains and masters, places he visited, all at once in one page. That specific information made the narrative a little bit boring. Also, the narrative was hard to understand and follow at times because Olaudah used some old language, included historical documents that had old language, and used difficult vocabulary throughout the whole narrative. Finally, Olaudah ends the narrative with his marriage and kids. Overall, I thought that this narrative was an extremely entertaining nonfiction book that provided a lot of information on the global slave trade, including historical documents. Additionally, I thought Olaudah did an excellent job describing the global slave trade from his perspective and view, and found Olaudah’s memoir and narrative different and unique from all the others. He did not only concentrate on talking on the life of a slave; he also discussed and described how his life transformed from his contact with the Europeans. show less

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789 in London, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The narrative is argued to represent a variety of styles, such as a slavery narrative, travel narrative, and spiritual narrative. The book describes Equiano's time spent in enslavement, 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.