"25
Books That Changed the History of
African-America"
Book
#1: Interesting Narrative Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus
Vassa, the African (1789)
"I
had often seen my master…employed in reading," said Olaudah
Equiano. Kidnapped and sold into slavery in 1756 when he was only
eleven, a book was, to him, a curious thing. Discovering the key
to reading and achieving freedom from bondage, Equiano wrote the
story of his life - a two-volume book published in England in
1789, "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,
or Gustavus Vassa, the African."
Equiano's book broke ground for "autobiography" as a
new literary genre and is, to this day, one of the best accounts
of life in mid-eighteenth-century Africa uncontaminated by European
colonization and slavery.
"We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets,"
this son of an Ibo chief wrote of his charmed childhood in Benin.
"Every great event such as a triumphant return from battle
or other cause of public rejoicing is celebrated in public dances."
His is a view full of wonder grounded by purpose.
"I was trained up from my earliest years in the art of war:
my daily exercise was shooting and throwing javelins; and my mother
adorned me with emblems, after the manner of our greatest warriors."
With his book and the platform afforded him as an author, he waged
war on slavery until his death in 1797.
Portrait
of Equiano courtesy of the British Library. For more information
on the author and a link to the Library.
Freedom's Journal vol.1, no.1 masthead courtesy
of American
Memory, a digital service of the Library
of Congress. For this and other original documents, explore
this digitized library online at: www.memory.loc.gov
