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# 2021-05-14 - The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah | |
# Equiano | |
Book cover image | |
An article recommended this autobiography for those interested in | |
learning about the abolition movement. The author was separated from | |
his family, enslaved multiple times, and multiple times he wished | |
that he was dead. In spite of this, he was remarkably bouyant and | |
resourceful, always rising above situations that i would have found | |
crushing. This story is set prior to the legal abolition of slavery | |
in England, during a time when slaves were openly bought and sold in | |
markets at London and Liverpool [1]. | |
[1] | |
Slavery in Britain, see section Judicial decisions | |
It was interesting for me to read about his servitude to Mr. Robert | |
King, a quaker slaver who was known for being the best master at | |
Montserrat. Of Mr. King, the author wrote: | |
> If any of his slaves behaved amiss he did not beat or use them | |
> ill, but parted with them. This made them afraid of disobliging | |
> him; and as he treated his slaves better than any other man on the | |
> island, so he was better and more faithfully served by them in | |
> return. | |
To me this seems a sinister type of kindness, the complicity of | |
directly profiting from the dirty work of others. | |
> Being his own publisher gave Equiano control over every aspect of | |
> his book. For the frontispiece to the first volume, for instance, | |
> he chose an engraving of himself. The image is one of only a | |
> handful from the England of this time that show black men or women | |
> whose identities we know. ... Equiano had noticed the most | |
> popular forms of literature around him--the adventure travelogue, | |
> the riches-to-rags-to-riches tale, the religious convert's | |
> testimony--and skillfully combined elements of them all. | |
From: https://slate.com/human-interest/2015/06/olaudah-equianos-autobiography-t… | |
Below are quotes that i found interesting: | |
> And here I cannot forbear suggesting what has long struck me very | |
> forcibly, namely, the strong analogy which even by this sketch, | |
> imperfect as it is, appears to prevail in the manners and customs | |
> of my countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the | |
> Land of Promise, and particularly the patriarchs while they were | |
> yet in that pastoral state which is described in Genesis--an | |
> analogy, which alone would induce me to think that the one people | |
> had sprung from the other. | |
> In May 1769, soon after our return from Turkey, our ship made a | |
> delightful voyage to Oporto in Portugal, where we arrived at the | |
> time of the carnival. On our arrival, there were sent on board to | |
> us thirty-six articles to observe, with very heavy penalties if we | |
> should break any of them; and none of us even dared to go on board | |
> any other vessel or on shore till the Inquisition had sent on board | |
> and searched for every thing illegal, especially bibles. Such as | |
> were produced, and certain other things, were sent on shore till | |
> the ships were going away; and any person in whose custody a bible | |
> was found concealed was to be imprisoned and flogged, and sent into | |
> slavery for ten years. | |
Related links: | |
Equiano's World | |
Amazing Grace @Wikipedia | |
Amazing Grace @IMDB | |
author: Equiano, Olaudah, 1745-1797 | |
detail: gopher://gopherpedia.com/0/Olaudah_Equiano | |
LOC: HT869.E6 A3 | |
source: gopher://gopher.pglaf.org/1/1/5/3/9/15399/ | |
tags: biography,ebook,history,non-fiction,slave narrative | |
title: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano | |
# Tags | |
biography | |
ebook | |
history | |
non-fiction | |
slave narrative |