The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture) - Softcover

Equiano, Olaudah

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9780312111274: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself (The Bedford Series in History and Culture)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312111274 ISBN 13: 9780312111274

Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1995

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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. This edition is the first in more than twenty-five years to offer the complete text of the Life together with a comprehensive twenty-page introduction and useful editorial apparatus designed to help students get the most out of this important work. Also included are illustrations, a chronology, questions for consideration, a bibliography, and an index.

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From the Inside Flap:

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 Introduction. "He alerts us to the very concerns that trouble modern intellectuals, black, white, and otherwise, on both sides of the Atlantic."
The text of this Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive ninth edition of 1794, reflecting the author's final changes to his masterwork.

About the Author:

Born in Nigeria in 1745, Olaudah Equiano was a well-known African abolitionist. Equiano was shipped to the West Indies as a child-slave, and then to England where he was purchased by Lieutenant Michael Pascal and trained as a seaman before serving in The Seven Years War. At the conclusion of hostilities, Pascal did not free Equiano as promised, but instead sold him to Captain James Doran who then sold Equiano to James King, a merchant from Philadelphia. In 1765, King let Equiano purchase his freedom for forty pounds, and helped him earn money in his stead as a merchant. Now a free man, Equiano returned to London where he made significant contributions to the abolitionist movement, and published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, which influenced the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Equiano is believed to have died in 1797 at the age of 52.

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