The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African: Written by Himself
1773
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African: Written by Himself
1773
This is the book that changed everything. Published in 1773, it became the first slave narrative to capture a wide readership in the English-speaking world, and its influence echoes through centuries of abolitionist literature and beyond. Equiano writes with remarkable precision about his childhood in what he describes as an African village, his violent abduction, and the horrifying journey across the Atlantic that would forever alter his understanding of the world. He documents the brutal economics of the trade, the casual cruelties of enslavers, and his own long struggle to purchase his freedom. But what elevates the narrative beyond testimony is Equiano's literary craft: his accounts of West African customs, his theological arguments against slavery, and his pointed appeals to the British reading public who profited from the very trade he condemns. The result is both intimate memoir and devastating political polemic, a text that helped tilt public opinion toward abolition and established the template for a genre that would shape American literature forever.
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“...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 it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.””
— Olaudah Equiano
“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 it, when alone, in hopes it would answer me; and I have been very much concerned when I found it remained silent.””
— Olaudah Equiano
“I considered that trials and disappointments are sometimes for our good, and I thought God might perhaps have permitted this in order to teach me wisdom and resignation; for he had hitherto shadowed me with the wings of his mercy, and by his invisible but powerful hand brought me the way I knew not. These reflections gave me a little comfort, and I rose at last from the deck with dejection and sorrow in my countenance, yet mixed with some faint hope that the Lord would appear for my deliverance.””
— Olaudah Equiano
“Such a tendency has the slave trade to debauch men's minds, and harden them to every feeling of humanity! For I will not suppose that the dealers in slaves are born worse than other men - No, it is the fatality of this mistaken avarice, that it corrupts the milk of human kindness and turns it into gall. And, had the pursuits of those men been different, they might have been as generous, as tender-hearted and just, as they are unfeeling, rapacious and cruel.””
— Olaudah Equiano
“transmigration””
— Olaudah Equiano
“I early accustomed myself to look for the hand of God in the minutest occurrence, and to learn from it a lesson of morality and religion; and in this light every circumstance I have related was to me of importance. After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn 'to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God?' To those who are possessed of this spirit, there is scarcely any book or incident so trifling that does not afford some profit, while to others the experience of ages seems of no use; and even to pour out to them the treasures of wisdom is throwing the jewels of instruction away.””
— Olaudah Equiano
“After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn 'to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God'? To those who are possessed of this spirit there is scarcely any book of incident so trifling that does not afford some profit, while to others the experience of ages seems of no use; and even to pour out to them the treasures of wisdom is throwing the jewels of instruction away.””
— Olaudah Equiano
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Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African: Written by Himself. Lex, lex-books.com/book/the-interesting-narrative-of-the-life-of-olaudah-equiano-or-gustavus-vassa-the-a-2bf6595e-dea2-43e1-a373-234494f45489.Equiano, O. (1773). The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African: Written by Himself. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-interesting-narrative-of-the-life-of-olaudah-equiano-or-gustavus-vassa-the-a-2bf6595e-dea2-43e1-a373-234494f45489Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African: Written by Himself. Lex. https://lex-books.com/book/the-interesting-narrative-of-the-life-of-olaudah-equiano-or-gustavus-vassa-the-a-2bf6595e-dea2-43e1-a373-234494f45489.
