Approximately fifty-three thousand Africans were transported as slaves to the Americas each year in the 17S0s; and many, many of them died in the process. The total number of Africans who were forced into New World slavery from the sixteenth to the nineteenth century has been estimated at between eleven and twelve million.How did these Africans experience their enslavement and the forced Atlantic crossing of the Middle Passage, "the rupture and the ordeal," as Nathan ttuggins described the second leg of the triangular voyage among Europe,Africa, and the Americas?2 One early answer was given by this book,The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written by Himself, first published in the memorable revolutionary year, 1789. The memoir, written before the word "autobiography" had been coined, describes the author's life before,during, and after his enslavement. ...

Olaudiah Equiano's 1789 narrative tells the remarkable story of his childhood in Africa, his kidnapping and subsequent years as a slave and seaman, and his eventual road to freedom in the Caribbean and in England. The text reprinted here is that of the 1789 first edition. It is accompanied by explanatory annotations, textual notes, and a map of Equiano's travels.

"Contexts" provides essential related public writings on the work by James Tobin, Gustavus Vassa (Olaudiah Equiano), and Samuel Jackson Pratt; general and historical background by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, Eav Beatrice Dykes, Wylie Sypher, Charles H. Nichols, Nathan I. Huggins, and David Dabydeen; related travel and scientific literature by Anthony Benezet, John Matthews, and John Mitchell; eighteenth-century works by African authors James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, John Marrant, and Quobna Ottabah Cugoano; and English debates about the slave trade by Thomas Clarkson, John Wesley, and William Wilberforce, as well as antislavery verse by Thomas Day and John Bicknell.

"Criticism" includes six contemporary reviews of The Interesting Narrative in the Life of Olaudiah Equiano. Nine modern essays are contributed by Paul Edwards, Charles T. Davis, Houston A. Baker, Jr., Angelo Costanzo, Catherine Obianju Acholonu, Henry Louis Gates, Jr., Geraldine Murphy, Adam Potkay, and Robert J. Allison.

A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are included.

No other series of classic texts equals the caliber of the Norton Critical Editions. Each volume combines the most authoritative text available with the comprehenive pedagogical apparatus necessary to appreciate the work fully. Careful editing, first-rate translation, and thorough explanatory annotations allow each text to meet the highest literary standards while remaining accessible to students. Each edition is printed on acid-free paper and every text in the series remains in print. Norton Critical Editions are the choice for excellence in scholarship for students at more than 2,000 universities worldwide.

Introduction

Acknowledgments

The Text of The Interesting Narrative of the

Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa,

the African, Written by Himself

  MAP: Equiano's World

  Title page

  Frontispiece

  List of Subscribers

  Contents of Volumes I and II

  The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or

    Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written By Himself

NOTE ON THE TEXT

SELECTED VARIANTS

  Additions

  Selected Textual Differences between the First and Ninth

    Editions

Contexts

 ILLUSTRATION: Nautical Terms

  RELATED PUBLIG WRITINGS

 James Tobin · From Cursory Remarks [upon James

    Ramsay's Antislavery Writing] (1785)

 Gustavus Vassa · Letter to James Tobin (January 28, 1788)

 Samuel Jackson Pratt · From Humanity; or, the Rights of

    Nature (1788)

 Gustavus Vassa · Letter to the Author of the Poem on

    Humanity (June 27, 1788)

 ILLUSTRATION: "Description of a Slave Ship"

 Gustavus Vassa · Letter to the Committee for the

    Abolition of the Slave Trade (February 14, 1789)

 GENERAL BACKGROUND

Jean-Jacques Rousseau · From A Discourse upon the

   Origin and Foundation of the Inequality among

   Mankind (1755, transl. 1761)

 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Eva Beatrice Dykes · ]Humanitarianism, John Wesley,

   and Gustavus Vassal

Wylie Sypher · [The Nature of the Protest]

Charles H. Nichols · From Many Thousand Gone: The

   Ex-Slaves' Account of Their Bondage and Freedom

Nathan I. Huggins · [The Rupture and the Ordeal]

David Dabydeen · Eighteenth-Century English Literature

   on Commerce and Slavery

  ILLUSTRATIONS: I. Cruikshank, William Blake, and

   Anonymous

 TRAVEL AND SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE

Anthony Benezet · From Some Historical Account of

   Guinea (1771)

John Matthews · From A Voyage to the River Sierra-Leone

   (1788)

John Mitchell · From Essay on the Causes of the Different

   Colours of People in Different Climates (1744)

 EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY AUTHORS OF AFRICAN ANCESTRY

James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw * [From A Narrative]

   (177o, 1774)

John Marrant · [A Captive of the Cherokees] (1785)

Quobna Ottohah Cugoano · ]Reflections and Memories]

   (1787)

 THE ENGLISh DEBATE ABOUT THE SLAVE TRADE

Thomas Clarkson · From An Essay on the Slavery and

   Commerce of the Human Species, Particularly the

   African (1786)

John Wesley · Letter to William Wilberforce

   Commenting on Gustavus Vassa (February 24, 1791)

William Wilberforce · From Speech in the House of

   Commons (May 13, 1789)

From The 1791 Debate in the House of Commons on the

   Abolition of the Slave Trade

 ANTISLAVERY VERSE

Thomas Day and John Bicknell · From The Dying Negro

     (1773)

Criticism

  EARLY REVIEWS AND ASSESSMENTS

From the Monthly Review (1789)

From General Magazine and Impartial Review (1789)

"W." [Mary Wollstonecraft] · ]Review of The Interesting

   Narrative] (1789)

Richard Gough · From Gentleman's Magazine (1789)

Henri Grdgoire · Vassa (18o8)

Lydia Maria Child · [Olaudah Equiano] (1833)

MODERN CRITICISM

Paul Edwards · From Introduction to The Life of Olaudah

   Equiano

Charles T. Davis · From The Slave Narrative: First Major

   Art Form in an Emerging Black Tradition

Houston A. Baker, Jr. · From Figurations for a New

   American Literary History

Angelo Costanzo · From The Spiritual Autobiography and

   Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

Catherine Obianju Acholonu · The Home of Olaudah

   Equiano--A Linguistic and Anthropological Search

Henry Louis Gates, Jr. · From The Trope of the Talking

    Book

Geraldine Murphy · Olaudah Equiano, Accidental

   Tourist

Adam Potkay · From Olaudah Equiano and the Art of

    Spiritual Autobiography

Robert J. Allison · Equiano's Narrative as an Abolitionist

    Tool

Olaudah Equiano: A Chronology

Selected Bibliography