Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man - Hardcover

Vincent Carretta

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0820325716 ISBN 13: 9780820325712

Publisher: University of Georgia Press, 2005

Synopsis

This definitive biography tells the story of the former slave Olaudah Equiano (1745?-97), who in his day was the English-speaking world’s most renowned person of African descent. Equiano’s greatest legacy is his classic 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. A key document of the early movement to ban the slave trade, it includes the earliest known firsthand description by a slave of the horrific Middle Passage from Africa to the Americas. Equiano, the African is filled with fresh revelations about this many-sided figure―most notably that Equiano may have been born not in Africa, as he claimed, but in South Carolina.

For Vincent Carretta, such disconnects between the public persona and actual life of Equiano only increase his importance as a window into a number of complex, overlapping worlds. Equiano was a sailor, adventurer, entrepreneur, and jack-of-all-trades. Carretta distills years of scholarly detective work on Equiano’s life and writings into a richly textured portrait of the man whose many transformations took him from slave to slave trader to anti-slave-trade advocate, and from pagan to Christian.

This is “life and times” history at its best. Throughout, Carretta relates The Interesting Narrative to the historical record on Equiano, as well as to the century’s economic, political, and religious undercurrents. Carretta argues that Equiano may have fabricated his African roots and his survival of the Middle Passage not only to sell more copies of his book but also to help advance the movement against the slave trade. Equiano, the African will leave readers with a fuller appreciation of the man’s achievements and a deeper understanding of race and slavery in the Atlantic world.

About this title

From the Publisher:

"Top 10" and "Best of" listings include:
Booklist's "Top 10 African American Nonfiction"
Amazon.com's "Top 10 Editors' Picks: Biographies"
ForeWord magazine's "10 Exceptional Books from University Presses"
American Library Association's "Best of the Best of the University Presses: Books You Should Know About"

About the Author:

VINCENT CARRETTA is a professor of English at the University of Maryland. He is the author or editor of more than ten books, including scholarly editions of the writings of Olaudah Equiano, Phillis Wheatley, Ignatius Sancho, and Ottobah Cugoano. His most recent books are Equiano, the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man, winner of the Annibel Jenkins Prize, and The Life and Letters of Philip Quaque, the First African Anglican Missionary, coedited with Ty M. Reese (both Georgia).

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Georgia Press
• Publication date: 2005
• ISBN 10: 0820325716
• ISBN 13: 9780820325712
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 436