The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Written by Himself - Softcover

Equiano, Olaudah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312442033 ISBN 13: 9780312442033

Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2006

Synopsis

Widely admired for its vivid accounts of the slave trade, Olaudah Equiano's autobiography -- the first slave narrative to attract a significant readership -- reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual. The second edition reproduces the original London printing, supervised by Equiano in 1789. Robert J. Allison's introduction, which places Equiano's narrative in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, has been revised and updated to reflect the heated controversy surrounding Equiano's birthplace, as well as the latest scholarship on Atlantic history and the history of slavery. Improved pedagogical features include contemporary illustrations with expanded captions and a map showing Equiano's travels in greater detail. Helpful footnotes provide guidance throughout the eighteenth-century text, and a chronology and an up-to-date bibliography aid students in their study of this thought-provoking narrative.

About this title

From the Inside Flap:

Edited and with Notes by Shelly Eversley
Introduction by Robert Reid-Pharr
In this truly astonishing eighteenth-century memoir, Olaudah Equiano recounts his remarkable life story, which begins when he is kidnapped in Africa as a boy and sold into slavery and culminates when he has achieved renown as a British antislavery advocate. The narrative "is a strikingly beautiful monument to the startling combination of skill, cunning, and plain good luck that allowed him to win his freedom, write his story, and gain international prominence," writes Robert Reid-Pharr in his Introduction. "He alerts us to the very concerns that trouble modern intellectuals, black, white, and otherwise, on both sides of the Atlantic."
The text of this Modern Library Paperback Classic is set from the definitive ninth edition of 1794, reflecting the author's final changes to his masterwork.

About the Author:

ROBERT J. ALLISON (Ph.D., Harvard University) is associate professor of history and chair of the department at Suffolk University, where he teaches U.S. and world history and the history of Boston. He is the author of A Short History of Boston (2004) and The Crescent Obscured: The United States and the Muslim World 1776-1815 (2000). He has edited two volumes of twentieth-century American political and social history: History In Dispute: The Pursuit of Progress, 1900-1945 and The Pursuit of Liberty, 1945-2000 (2000). He has also edited several volumes in the award-winning American Eras series, including The Revolutionary Era, 1754-1783 (1998) and The Development of a Nation, 1783-1815 (1997). Allison is an elected life member of the Colonial Society of Massachusetts and a fellow of the Massachusetts Historical Society. He is currently working on a biography of the American naval hero Stephen Decatur.

About this edition

• Publisher: Bedford/St. Martin's
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0312442033
• ISBN 13: 9780312442033
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 2
• Number of pages: 256
• Editor: Allison Robert J.