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W. W. Norton & Company : College Books

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equianos

Contents

  • The Text of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself
  • Map: Equiano’s World
  • Frontispiece
  • Title Page
  • 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
  • Notes on the Text
  • Selected Varients
  • Additions
  • Selected Textual Differences between First and Ninth Editions
  • Contexts
  • Illustration: Nautical Terms Related Public Writings
    • James Tobin, From Cursory Remarks [upon James Ramsay’s Antislavery Writing] (1785)
    • Gustavas 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 Humanit (June 27, 1788)
  • Illustration: Cross section of the slave ship Brookes (1786)
    • 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, trans. 1761)
  • Historical Background
    • Eva Beatrice Dykes, [Humanitarianism, John Wesley, and Gustavus Vassa]
    • 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-Leon (1788)
    • John Mitchell, From Essay on the Causes on the Different Colours of People in Different Climates(1744)
  • Eighteenth-Century Authors of African Ancestry
    • James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, [Selections from His Autobiography] (1770, 1774)
    • John Marrant, [A Captive of the Cherokees] (1785)
    • Quobna Ottabah 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, Speech in the House of Commons (May 13, 1789)
    • 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 Grégoire, Vassa (1808)
    • Lydia Maria Child, [Olaudah Equiano] (1833)
  • Modern Criticism
    • Paul Edwards, 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