Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797), the Life of Olaudah Equiano: or Gustavus Vassa, the African

Abstract

Olaudah Equiano was a writer and slavery abolitionist from Eboe in Benin (today southern Nigeria), who was sold into slavery as a child, but who purchased his freedom in 1766. Living in Britain as an adult, he was a member of the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group, and published his autobiography to draw attention to the humanity of Africans and the horrors of slavery. It was remarkably popular, running to nine editions in his lifetime. He travelled across the United Kingdom, offering lectures on his experiences and promoting the abolitionist cause. Here, Equiano, like many other black abolitionist writers, sought to highlight his sensibility, that prized Enlightenment disposition, which marked civilisation and readiness for self-governance. Like other eighteenth-century writings, Equiano’s autobiography is marked not only by a chronological account of events, but scenes which enable him to display a variety of emotional reactions, from horror to pain and suffering to love and loyalty. Like in the novel, such accounts were designed to enable the sensible reader to vicariously experience the emotions described. In the excerpt below, in an account of his recent removal from Africa, Equiano uses his naiveté in encountering American and British behaviours to draw attention to immoral and harsh practices. If many eighteenth-century writers used descriptions of ‘savage’ nations to explore human nature, Equiano’s text is designed to suggest that European practices are no better and indeed may be more cruel than the ‘savage’ nations to which they routinely compare themselves.