IvyPanda, 24 May 2021, ivypanda.com/essays/equianos-influence-and-narrative/. Equiano's narrative plays a key role in such a narrative, and so his birth takes on special importance. During the voyage, he became introspective and began considering the ways in which God had predestined every good and bad step of his life: I was from early years a predestinarian, I thought whatever fate had determined must ever come to pass.. Bruce, Dickson D., Jr. The servants of the Miss Guerins spoke to him which persuaded him, their servants told me I could not go to heaven, unless I was baptized.[1] Once baptized, Equianos entire perception of life began to revolutionize within his thoughts on his self and others; I began to raise my fear from man to him alone, and to call daily on his holy name with fear and reverence.[2] Later as a freeman, Equiano is sailing for his former master Mr. King in order to repay him for his benevolence in freeing him when his ship wrecks on a rock by the Bahama Banks due to the negligence of a new captain. Equianos Influence and Narrative. These two positions are incompatible. Publication of Equianos autobiography in 1789 was aided by British abolitionists, including Hannah More, Josiah Wedgwood, and John Wesley, who were collecting evidence on the sufferings of enslaved people. Andrews 1986 and Bruce 2001 discuss Equianos place and significance in literary history. During a stay in London in the late 1750s, Equiano worked for two sisters who sent him to school where he began to learn to read and write. Why? Thus, his work is not a simple recollection of one mans life. However, the fact that slavery once separated families, tribes, and populations should have been enough for people to believe in the cruelty of slavery. Later he settled in England and began to spend a great deal of time involved in the abolitionist movement as part of the Sons of Africa, a group of prominent African men in London. Olaudah Equiano: Creating An Identity Through Christianity "Equianos Influence and Narrative." Image: Painting by William Denton / Colorized by Rick Szuecs. Posted on December 6, 2016 by brendan_hufnagel. It is one of the earliest books published by a black African writer and helped influence British parliament to abolish the trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807. His Interesting Narrative served as the foremost abolitionist writing of the day because he was an African voice that described the violence and degradation of the slave trade and of slavery itself. He published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), which depicted the horrors of slavery. You'll be able to access your notes and highlights, make requests, and get updates on new titles. After weeping and grieving for a time, he grew calmer, thinking this was God's way to teach him wisdom and resignation. The Slave trade was active in those countries as well, and enslaved people were still treated as items. Politics, Music, and Literature Enthusiast. He travelled widely promoting the book, which became immensely . Equiano lent his voice and his pen to the cause of suppressing Britains role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press, 2001. Equianos narrative spurred nine English editions through 1794 and was published in Dutch, French, and Russian. This medallion was designed to be the emblem of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade. In twelve chapters, Equiano presented a body of evidence that helped to support the cause of abolition and the end of transatlantic slaving by Britain and others. It is important to note, however, that in the last two decades, scholars have raised doubts about the truth of some parts of Equianos Interesting Narrative. Once a freeman he sees himself equal in worth to those of European descent but then through his experiences he identifies more with those of African ancestry and slavery. It is not only slaves that are subject to cruelty and violence; any person darker-skinned than the European colonizers is subject to injustice. Within the abolitionist canon, Equiano's Travels belongs to a select subgroup: the slave narrative. Equiano is walking a careful balance between arguing that there are insoluble contradictions to the slave trade, and acknowledging that there are different levels of inhumanity. LitCharts Teacher Editions. Because of its wide influence, Equiano is sometimes regarded as the originator of the slave narrative, although numerous autobiographies in various forms by people formerly enslaved in the United States were published beginning in the mid-18th century. Further, he refutes the idea that darker skin denoted inferiority, instead, drawing upon European writings that argued that climate produced dark skin. Looking back on the incident he ponders the results of his actions due to his faith and what he believed God had sought him to do thus seeing that they were the result of his strong relationship with God; I could not help thinking, that if any of these people had been lost, God would charge me with their lives, which, perhaps, was one cause of my labouring so hard for their preservation.[3] This evolution of character is spurred on by the acceptance and then development of Equianos faith in Christianity which then affects all of his actions as he sees every major moment of life or death as a trial set out for him by God to overcome through his self developed virtues. It was published in 1789, at a time. Proudly powered by WordPress While every effort has been made to follow citation style rules, there may be some discrepancies. The very land of Montserrat is traumatizing to Equiano, as the West Indies in general represent one key part of the international slave trade. Pascal shocked Equiano at the end of the war in 1762 when he refused to grant him his freedom, instead selling him into the horrors of West Indian slavery. This essay on Equianos Influence and Narrative was written and submitted by your fellow Headnote for Olaudah Equiano They had several children, but only one survived into adulthood. (2021, May 24). By stressing that such treatment is ubiquitous, Equiano shows how the very system itself, including the logic of inequality by which it structures society, is flawed. In his attempted conversion of the indian prince he comments; I was well pleased at this, and took great delight in him, and used much supplication to God for his conversion.[4] His work with the indian prince assured him of Gods will and his faith was then strengthened by his own actions. Fordham University, 2013. Spanning the transatlantic world, Equianos story powerfully captures the lived experience of slavery in the eighteenth century through the eyes of an observer with almost unbelievable resourcefulness and resilience. Eric Michael Washington is an associate professor of history at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Michigan. The fact that Equiano was owned largely by benevolent men assures him of God's presence. Other scholars have suggested that there may be other reasons to account for the discrepancy; Equiano was not responsible for creating these records, and there may be all sorts of reasons why the people who were in charge of these documents, or he, might have decided not to have identified him as having born in Africa, some of which we probably cannot reconstruct from this distance. But this level of detail is a vital element of the narrative, because it prevents readers from continuing to shut their eyes to the realities of the slave trade by thinking human beings cant possibly be as treated so horrifically. 1 Why are Olaudah Equiano writings important? He does not shy away from cataloging the horrors of the "peculiar institution," starting with his own kidnapping, and his severance from his family. Definitions and examples of 136 literary terms and devices. Therefore, even if the story of Equiano is untrue in some parts, the overall verisimilitude of the narrative should not be affected.