Travels of Olaudah Equiano, as described in the Interesting Narrative, 1789. Created by Miles Ogborn and Edward Oliver, School of Geography, Queen Mary University of London.
Source: Ogborn (2008) Global Lives: Britain and the World, 1550–1800 (Cambridge University Press).
FURTHER READING
1 Vincent Carretta, Equiano the African: Biography of a Self-Made Man (2005).
2 Toby Green, A Fistful of Shells: West Africa from the Rise of the Slave Trade to the Age of Revolution (2019).
3 Adam Hochschild, Bury the Chains: Prophets and Rebels in the Fight to Free an Empire's Slaves (2005).
4 David Olusoga, Black and British: A Forgotten History (2016).
5 Padraic X. Scanlan, Slave Empire: How Slavery Built Modern Britain (2020).
6 Michael Taylor, The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery (2020).
NOTE ON THE TEXT
This edition is based on the text of the first edition, published by Equiano himself in London in 1789. The edition includes Equiano's own footnotes, and the original two-volume structure of the work has been preserved. We have retained his original spellings for the most part.
Explanatory notes appear at the end to help readers decode some of Equiano's references, including names of places or peoples that have since changed. However, many places he refers to (e.g. ‘Barbadoes’) are self-explanatory.
Equiano published a number of later editions of the book, but his alterations were of a minor nature. The Interesting Narrative was also published in Dutch, German, and Russian.
NOTE
1 1 There is some controversy over Equiano's birthplace. His biographer Vincent Carretta has pointed to the fact that the register which records his baptism in London in 1759 records his birthplace as South Carolina, then a British colony. On the other hand, Equiano's descriptions of Igboland in southeastern Nigeria are vivid, suggesting he was indeed from there.
ABOUT MICHAEL TAYLOR
Michael Taylor is a historian of colonial slavery in the British Empire. He is the author of The Interest: How the British Establishment Resisted the Abolition of Slavery (2020). Michael holds a PhD in history from the University of Cambridge, and has been Lecturer in Modern British History at Balliol College, Oxford. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the British Library's Eccles Centre for American Studies.
ABOUT TOM BUTLER-BOWDON
Tom Butler-Bowdon
As series editor for the Capstone Classics series, Tom has written Introductions to Plato's The Republic, Machiavelli's The Prince, Adam Smith's The Wealth of Nations, Sun Tzu's The Art of War, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching, and Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich.
Tom is a graduate of the London School of Economics and the University of Sydney.
THE INTERESTING NARRATIVE OF THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO, OR GUSTAVUS VASSA, THE AFRICAN.
Written by Himself.
Behold, God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid, for the Lord Jehovah is my strength and my song; he also is become my salvation. And in that shall ye say, Praise the Lord, call upon his name, declare his doings among the people. Isaiah xii. 2, 4.
Olaudah Equiano. Frontispiece to second edition of the Interesting Narrative, London 1789 (British Library)
To the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and the Commons of the Parliament of Great Britain.
My Lords and Gentlemen,
Permit me, with the greatest deference and respect, to lay at your feet the following genuine Narrative; the chief design of which is to excite in your august assemblies a sense of compassion for the miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen. By the horrors of that trade was I first torn away from all the tender connexions that were naturally dear to my heart; but these, through the mysterious ways of Providence, I ought to regard as infinitely more than compensated by the introduction I have thence obtained to the knowledge of the Christian religion, and of a nation which, by its liberal sentiments, its humanity, the glorious freedom of its government, and its proficiency in arts and sciences, has exalted the dignity of human nature.
I am sensible I ought to entreat your pardon for addressing to you a work so wholly devoid of literary merit; but, as the production of an unlettered African, who is actuated by the hope of becoming an instrument towards the relief of his suffering countrymen, I trust that such a man, pleading in such a cause, will be acquitted of boldness and presumption.
May the God of heaven inspire your hearts with peculiar benevolence on that important day when the question of Abolition is to be discussed, when thousands, in consequence of your Determination, are to look for Happiness or Misery!
I am, My Lords and Gentlemen, Your most obedient, And devoted humble Servant, OLAUDAH EQUIANO, or GUSTAVUS VASSA.
Union-Street, Mary-le-bone,March 24, 1789.
LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS
His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales.
His Royal Highness the Duke of York.
A
The Right Hon. the Earl of Ailesbury
Admiral Affleck
Mr. William Abington, 2 copies
Mr. John Abraham
James Adair, Esq.
Reverend Mr. Aldridge
Mr. John Almon
Mrs. Arnot
Mr. Joseph Armitage
Mr. Joseph Ashpinshaw
Mr. Samuel Atkins
Mr. John Atwood
Mr. Thomas Atwood
Mr. Ashwell