Edited and with Notes by Shelly Eversley
Introduction by Robert Reid-Pharr
In this truly astonishing eighteenth-century memoir, Olaudah Equiano recounts his remarkable life story, which begins when he is kidnapped in Africa as a boy and sold into slavery and culminates when he has achieved renown as a British antislavery advocate. The narrative "is a strikingly beautiful monument to the startling combination of skill, cunning, and plain good luck that allowed him to win his freedom, write his story, and gain international prominence," writes Robert Reid-Pharr in his...

One of the most significant developments in current literary studies is the rediscovery and reevaluation of texts by British writers of African descent. This volume combines popular texts with hard-to-find selections in a format that enables students to place them in their historical and cultural contexts. For instructors, the collection offers reliable texts, stimulating context pieces, and the most useful modern critical essays. The book is divided into four sections: Narratives, Poetry, Voices (letters), and Criticism. Native African and African-heritage authors living in Great Britain and...

More than just a fascinating story, Olaudah Equiano's autobiography - the first slave narrative to be widely read - reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual. The second edition takes into consideration the latest scholarship on Atlantic history and the history of slavery. Professor Allison s introduction, which places Equiano s narrative in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, has been revised and updated to include a discussion of the geographic origins of African slaves and the debate over Equiano s birthplace. Expanded and...

Olaudah Equiano was one of the most prominent people of African heritage involved in the British debate for the abolition of the slave trade. He wrote an autobiography that depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807. This is his story. I hope the reader will not think I have trespassed on his patience in introducing myself to him with some account of the manners and customs of my country. They had been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression on my mind, which time could not erase, and...

Olaudah Equiano was one of the most prominent people of African heritage involved in the British debate for the abolition of the slave trade. He wrote an autobiography that depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807. This is his story. I hope the reader will not think I have trespassed on his patience in introducing myself to him with some account of the manners and customs of my country. They had been implanted in me with great care, and made an impression on my mind, which time could not erase, and...

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The book discusses his time spent in slavery, serving primarily on galleys, 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.

Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was maybe the most prominent African involved in the movement for the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography showed the horrors of slavery and influenced British lawmakers in a certain degree to abolish the slave trade.

Olaudah Equiano was a former slave who became an outspoken opponent of the slave trade.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African is an exciting and terrifying adventure story Equianos accounts of his kidnapping in Africa at the age of ten, his service as the slave of an officer in the British Navy, his ten years of labor on slave ships until he was able to purchase his freedom in 1766, and his life afterward as a leading and respected figure in the antislavery movement in England. It is a treatise on religion, politics, and economics, a work...

Gustavus Vassa (alias Orlauda Equiano, the African) was on the vanguard of the anti-slavery movement in England at the end of the eighteenth century. He provided a voice for people of African descent in the British Atlantic world. His Interesting Narrative has influenced countless works, both fiction and nonfiction.

Nigerian-born Olaudah Equiano (c.1745 97), also known as Gustavus Vassa, was sold into slavery as a child and endured the horrors of the transatlantic slave ships. He later worked on board Royal Navy vessels, receiving an education and converting to Christianity. Buying his freedom in 1766, he embarked on several voyages before settling in London, where he became involved in the causes of anti-slavery and the welfare of former slaves. Published in 1789, this successful two-volume autobiography boosted the abolitionist cause, providing a first-hand account of the experience of Africans on both...