The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, written in 1789, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. It 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. The book contains an interesting discussion of slavery in West Africa and illustrates how the experience differs from the dehumanizing slavery of the Americas. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is also one of the first widely read slave narratives.
ces of brutal cruelty; and this not only shewn
towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves. One
white man in particular I saw, when we were permitted to be on deck,
flogged so unmercifully with a large rope near the foremast, that he
died in consequence of it; and they tossed him over the side as they
would have done a brute. This made me fear these people the more; and
I expected nothing less than to be treated in the same manner. I could
not help expressing my fears and apprehensions to some of my
countrymen: I asked them if these people had no country, but lived in
this hollow place (the ship): they told me they did not, but came from
a distant one. 'Then,' said I, 'how comes it in all our country we
never heard of them?' They told me because they lived so very far off.
I then asked where were their women? had they any like themselves? I
was told they had: 'and why,' said I,'do we not see them?' they
answered, because they were left behind. I asked how the vessel could
go? they told me they could not tell; but that there were cloths put
upon the masts by the help of the ropes I saw, and then the vessel
went on; and the white men had some spell or magic they put in the
water when they liked in order to stop the vessel. I was exceedingly
amazed at this account, and really thought they were spirits. I
therefore wished much to be from amongst them, for I expected they
would sacrifice me: but my wishes were vain; for we were so quartered
that it was impossible for any of us to make our escape. While we
stayed on the coast I was mostly on deck; and one day, to my great
astonishment, I saw one of these vessels coming in with the sails up.
As soon as the whites saw it, they gave a great shout, at which we
were amazed; and the more so as the vessel appeared larger by
approaching nearer. At last she came to an anchor in my sight, and
when the anchor was let go I and my countrymen who saw it were lost in
astonishment to observe
Anyway, so I'm pretty into 18th-c