The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, the African

Originally published in 1789, Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself is a slave narrative in which the author recounts his childhood, capture, life as an enslaved person, and emancipation. With its descriptions of life among the Igbo and the author’s experience of the Middle Passage, the book is a key text for studying the transatlantic slave trade and lives of people of African descent in the 18th century. The book gained a wide audience during debates around abolition in Great Britain and was reprinted multiple times. This guide is based on the text collected in Library of America’s print edition of Slave Narratives, published in 2000.

Summary

Equiano opens the volume with a letter to members of the British Parliament. He begs them to ignore any defects in his work because of the righteousness of his cause, the abolition of slavery.

In Chapter 1, Equiano describes his life in Essaka (located in modern-day Nigeria) prior to his kidnapping.

In Chapter 2, Equiano recounts his capture, journey to the North American Atlantic coast, and the conditions he experiences during the journey across the Atlantic, known as the Middle Passage.

In Chapter 3, Equiano arrives in Barbados and is sold to a Virginia planter. The planter sells Equiano to Captain Pascal, a member of the British Royal Navy. Pascal takes Equiano with him to England, and Equiano later accompanies him as he goes to war.

In Chapter 4, Equiano presents firsthand accounts of naval battles and sieges of the Seven Years’ War between France and Great Britain. He earns monetary bounties through his participation in these battles and expects that he will be able to use these funds to buy himself out of slavery. He is baptized during this period and begins to learn to read in English. When peacetime comes, Pascal takes the bounties and sells Equiano to slave traders bound for the West Indies.

In Chapter 5, Equiano describes his sale to Mr. King on the island of Montserrat. He includes accounts of the abuses he suffers. He also includes testimony about the widespread nature of physical and sexual abuse practiced against enslaved people by slaveowners and their employees.

In Chapter 6, Equiano works on ships that transport enslaved people and goods to American ports like Savannah. He trades goods to earn money to buy his freedom, although white people frequently take advantage of him because he is enslaved. Equiano survives a severe beating in Savannah.

In Chapter 7, Equiano purchases his freedom from Mr. King and begins working to fund a return to England. He deals with constant theft and abuse as a formerly enslaved person because the law gives him no protection against unscrupulous white people.

In Chapter 8, Equiano survives a shipwreck near the Bahamas. He returns to Georgia afterward and nearly becomes a slave again when two men pretend that he is an escaped slave. He sails for Martinique after having some difficulty leaving the island because he is a formerly enslaved person.

In Chapter 9, Equiano makes it to England and learns to be a hairdresser. He signs on to serve under Dr. Irving on a ship. He sails to exotic parts of the world.

In Chapter 10, Equiano has a highly emotional experience that leads to a true conversion to Christianity.

In Chapter 11, Equiano, desperate for money, serves on a ship bound for Jamaica and an expedition among the Mosquito, Indigenous people of Central America. Tired of the godlessness of members of his party, he takes a ship back to Jamaica. After some difficulty leaving the ship, he returns to England.

In Chapter 12, Equiano attempts and fails to become a missionary to Africa, likely because of racism. He works as an administrator for an attempt to settle Afro-British people in Sierra Leone, but the settlement is a failure. He also engages in work to support the abolition of slavery. He presents arguments on why abolition makes good moral and economic sense. He closes his work with an apology for any flaws in the text and his hopes that the work has improved the reader.