Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African

by Olaudah Equiano, Paul Geoffrey Edwards

Compelling work traces the formidable journey of an Igbo prince from captivity to freedom and literacy and recounts his enslavement in the New World, service in the Seven Years War, voyages to the Arctic, 6 months among the Miskito Indians in Central America, and more.

124 pages, Paperback

Published January 1, 1989

About the author

Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was one of the most prominent Africans involved in the British movement of the abolition for the slave trade. Although enslaved as a young man, he purchased his freedom and worked as an author, merchant, and explorer in South America, the Caribbean, the Arctic, the American colonies, and the United Kingdom.

Reviews

[Christopher Hutson · Rating 5 out of 5]

There's nothing like reading the primary sources. Equiano offers a vivid description of what it was like in the 18th century to be kidnapped as a boy in Benin and sold to English slave traders. Let's just say the enslavers did not fear God or man. People in London were more humane, but in the Caribbean Islands and in Georgia brutality was the order of the day. The only slave-holder in the Islands who was close to humane was a Quaker merchant. What is fascinating is how Equiano managed to hold himself together and work his way out of the horror.

[Igenlode Wordsmith · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is oddly reminiscent of "Robinson Crusoe"; the same optimistic trading expeditions, the same encounters with dishonest or rapacious captains (eighteenth-century shipmasters seem to have been a dodgy lot), the same wrecks and nautical disasters, the same religious fervour (Equiano is possessed by the fear that a sailor who uttered an oath would go straight to Hell, and is very eager to convert the heathen). What it isn't is a 'slave narrative' (a genre which didn't really exist as a model for the author) - it's the story of someone who was brought up more or less to consider himself a British sailor and to identify with the fortunes of the fleet, only to discover when he reaches adulthood that, unlike the other sailors who have not been paid in years, he doesn't get to keep any of the back pay and prize money to which his naval service entitles him, but gets sold off to a West Indian plantation as an embarrassment in his master's private life. (Equiano attributes the whole thing to rivalry between his master's mistresses, specifically because one of them resents the possibility of the other having a (highly desirable as a fashion statement) black man working for her.)

At this point he witnesses but does not personally experience the evils of the plantation slave system, trades his way to liberty thanks to his financial acumen, and does his best to get back to the England he considers his home. He works on a number of slave ships while trading his way around the Caribbean and is later employed as a plantation overseer on the Mosquito Coast, where he prides himself on doing a better job managing the slaves than the white man who succeeds him, but leaves because of his employer's failure to keep the Sabbath holy. He doesn't seem to disapprove of slavery as such (his own people in West Africa kept and took slaves for domestic purposes), but of the wasteful and unchristian way in which the Europeans are carrying it out, requiring the constant importing of fresh stock. On the other hand he is very often the victim of unscrupulous men who cheat him just because they can, knowing that the local authorities will never back the claim of a black man against a white.

Like Crusoe, he is no sooner at home for a year or so than he is smitten by fresh wanderlust; he takes part in an expedition to the fabled North-West Passage, and is involved in an attempt to resettle the destitute black poor from England to Sierra Leone. He visits Turkey several times and considers settling there; there is also a comic interlude where he attempts to convert a Catholic priest to what he considers the one true (i.e. Calvinist) faith, and is disappointed that holy water has no discernable effect on his state of grace. At the end of the book he mentions almost in parenthesis that he has got married, a subject clearly considered of less importance to his readership than his concerns over the souls of his fellows!

[Gini · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good read and simply written. A life story, a look at slavery, particularly as it was in the Caribbean area and the emerging US nation. But the real reason to read this to watch how Olaudah grew, learned, and especially demonstrated that his religious faith strengthened and encouraged him to continue forward. And this young man had ample opportunity to despair and just give up. Yes, not as much as others, but plenty enough.
I'm glad I discovered this book. Quite inspiring.

[Cassandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Joseph Simpson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great book language is far from contemporary and also very dated point of view on slavery but eve opening first-hand perspective on the triangle trade. He attempts to visit the North Pole too!