Olaudah Equiano

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Standard Name: Equiano, Olaudah
Used Form: Gustavus Vassa
OE wrote, and published in 1789, the earliest known autobiography by a Black person. This book pioneered the genre of the slave narrative, and increased Equiano's opportunities for publishing other writing (public letters, petitions, and book reviews) in the abolitionist cause.

Connections

Connections Author name Excerpt
Intertextuality and Influence Susanna Watts
At the outset the sisters are faced with the big question about slavery: What can I do for the cause?
Watts, Susanna. The Humming Bird. I. Cockshaw, 1-2.
4
They reply firmly that everybody can do something: boycott sugar and educate others. They...
Textual Features Malorie Blackman
Here stories and poems by present-day writers (like Grace Nichols , John Agard , Alex Haley , Blackman herself, and Benjamin Zephaniah ) appear along with testimony from some of those who were actually enslaved...
Textual Features Anna Maria Mackenzie
The story opens during the sixteenth century, in the forests of Dalecarlia (in Swedish Dalarna), whose copper miners supported Gustav Vasa (in English generally known as Gustavus) in his revolt against Christian II, King of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway
Textual Production Charlotte Nooth
His De la littérature des Nègres in its original form reflects internationalism, anglophilia, and perhaps even proto-feminism. The title-page quotes Mary Robinson . The roll of honour of white activists for abolition and racial equality...

Timeline

17 August 1759: In the Seven Years' War, the British navy...

National or international item

17 August 1759

In the Seven Years' War, the British navy won a crucial victory over the French fleet at the battle of Lagos, West Africa.

March 1783: In the Zong case, a jury in London ruled...

National or international item

March 1783

In the Zong case, a jury in London ruled that shipowners trading in slaves were owed compensation for human cargo thrown overboard.
Walvin, James. Black Ivory: A History of British Slavery. Howard University Press, 1994.
118
Carretta, Vincent. Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self–made Man. University of Georgia Press, 2005.
237

Texts

Equiano, Olaudah. “Introduction, etc”. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, edited by Angelo Costanzo, Peterborough, ON, 2001, pp. 7-37.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. 1789, 2 vols.
Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Editor Costanzo, Angelo, Broadview, 2001.