triumphant return from battle, or other cause of public rejoicing is celebrated in public dances, which are accompanied with song and music suited to the occasion” (7). As all young children do, Equiano had become accustomed to his own way of living. Although he did not have the capability to understand all of the ways of the Igbo, he relates what he does understand and remember.
According to Katherine Slattery, the Igbo people have been researched for only the past 50 years. Many of the sources available include “fragmentary oral traditions and correlation of cultural traits” (Slattery). It is possible that Equiano provided for much of the information that is known about that region of the world. It has been found that from 1434-1807, there was much trade between England and Nigeria consisting mostly of Igbo slaves (Slattery). Equiano was very aware as a child that there were kidnappers and assailants in search of victims to sell as slaves. He asserts that when the adults would leave to work, the children would get together and “commonly some of us used to get up a tree to look out for any assailant, or kidnapper that might come upon us; for they sometimes took these opportunities of our parents’ absence, to attack and carry off as many as they could seize” (Equiano 24). Equiano could not have known that this is what was happening had he not experienced it first hand.
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After his kidnapping and subsequently being sold many times, Equiano experiences the Middle Passage. He states of the slave ship, “and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me” (34). He relates the “shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying” as a “scene of horror almost inconceivable” (38). Equiano’s description of this event is of great importance because it was the really the first time that the Middle Passage had been recorded by someone who actually experienced it. These descriptions, however, do not go without criticism.
Vincent Carretta, a professor at the University of Maryland at College Park, claims that Equiano’s descriptions of Africa and the Middle Passage closely resemble those of American and European writers (96). Equiano surely consulted other works to recollect his distant memories. According to Angelo Costanzo, Equiano's descriptions of Africa came partly from the "ideas he read about and ... the knowledge he acquired from a lifetime of experience" (56). Equiano was young when he traveled the Middle Passage and it was a terrifying and traumatic experience. It is possible that he did not understand all that went on while aboard the ship. He claims that his “ignorance of what [he] was to undergo” was increased by the many horrors he witnessed (Equiano 35). His curiosity simply led him to investigate what other writers had written about the incident.
Vincent Carretta claims that Equiano never visited, much less was born in Africa. Rather, he was born into slavery in South Carolina (96). These claims are
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fueled by two important documents: his baptismal record and a Navy muster roll. On both of these documents, South Carolina is listed as Equiano’s place of birth. However, it was not common for slaves to list their actual place of birth, even in instances of freedom. In many cases, the former slaves were trying to restart life. Having “slavery” in their background was one strike, but to actually be from Africa was another.
Another main point Carretta brings up is that he was never referred to as Olaudah Equiano until he wrote this book (96). A majority of the people he spoke with after obtaining freedom referred to him as Gustavus Vassa. However, it was not common practice for a slave to reuse his or her original name even upon receiving freedom. He had been known by this name for much of his life. Equiano responded to such claims by stating that there were “numerous . . . respectable persons of character who knew [him] when [he] first arrived in England, and could not speak no language but that of Africa” (xxvii-xxviii). Equiano had been kidnapped at the age eleven and had his name changed several times after that. First he was named Jacob, then Michael, and finally Gustavus Vassa. He had lost his identity and was simply trying to create a new one.
Equiano suggests that his motive for writing his memoir is to provide “satisfaction to [his] numerous friends, at whose request it has been written, or in the smallest degree promote the interests of humanity, the ends for which it was undertaken” (4). According to some critics, Equiano simply wrote this story to entice people to end slavery. It has been claimed that he invented this persona in
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hopes of doing so. Of course, Equiano hoped that his story would help influence the abolishment of the slave trade; however, this desire and motivation should not discredit Equiano. He saw the opportunity to possibly make a difference for thousands of people and he seized the moment.
This novel is one of great importance and controversy. This novel continues to be treated as a valuable and historical piece of literature, yet it is still scrutinized. While it is evident that the critics have not proven the inaccuracy of this account, it is also clear that this debate is far from over. Regardless of this debate, the importance of the novel remains. This memoir brought about several new concepts to literature, especially for the African-American. It provided information in a way that readers had never experienced. The first hand account of these horrible events provide the reader with many conflicting feelings. At this time, there was much debate over the abolishment of slave trade and this novel helped to eventually bring all slavery to an end. Equiano was never able to witness the fruits of his hard labor, but he did not quit fighting for what he believed in until the very end. Olaudah Equiano is a historically accurate novel worthy of being treated as a viable piece of literature.
Works Cited
Carretta, Vincent. “Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa? New Light on an Eighteenth-century Question of Identity”, Slavery and Abolition, 20, 3 (December 1999), 96-105
Costanzo, Angelo. Surprising Narrative: Olaudah Equiano and the Beginnings of Black Biography. New York: Greenwood P, 1987.
Equiano, Olaudah. Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself. New York. Modern Library. 1789.
Slattery, Katherine. “The Igbo People – Origins and History.” November 1999. Queen’s University of Belfast. April 2005. .
