Either way this does not detract from the account. Some have questioned whether Equiano was born in Africa or in North America due to some conflicting records. The narrative is argued to represent a variety of styles, such as a slavery narrative, travel narrative, and spiritual narrative. I understand that his purchase as a slave and travels as a seaman are so well documented from contemporaneous ships records etc that there is no disagreement on its truthfulness. The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789 in London, 1 is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The word incredible came to mind so often that I looked up some critiques of the book. It is well read with appropriate intonation and in-keeping with the authors underplaying of the extraordinary events.
I would consider this essential reading for all seeking to understand Britain’s role in the transatlantic slave trade and the realities of slavery in the West Indies. As a primary source it authoritatively reveals the micro and macro pictures.
The prose is beautiful, the arguments passionate, clear and gracious. It reads like a cross between Hornblower and 12 years a slave, giving a personal account of the horrors of the transatlantic slave trade and slavery, the trials of being a freed man, the surprisingly globalised and interconnected trading of the 18th century and by implication Britain’s gain from slavery. This is an incredibly gripping account of one extraordinary man’s life from childhood in west Africa, enslavement, freedom, coming to a personal faith in Jesus and abolitionist.
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