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Emigration or Deportation?

in Black Poor and White Philanthropists: London's Blacks and the Foundation of the Sierra Leone Settlement 1786–1791

London's Black Poor were initially eager to join the Sierra Leone expedition, but many had had second thoughts by November 1786. Those who were chosen were so slow to embark because of the rumour ... More

London's Black Poor were initially eager to join the Sierra Leone expedition, but many had had second thoughts by November 1786. Those who were chosen were so slow to embark because of the rumour that they would be sent to Botany Bay, or that the settlement was intended as a penal colony, a rumour which was confirmed by Granville Sharp as the most important factor that made the Black Poor hesitant to board the ships which would take them to their destination. This chapter examines the rumour as well as the problems that beset the planned expedition, including the disputes involving Gustavus Vassa, the Commissary, and John Irwin, the Superintendent, when the ships reached Plymouth. It also explores the question of whether the voyage was a voluntary emigration on the part of the blacks or whether it constituted a deportation.Less

Making the Flesh Word: Binomial Being and Representational Presence

Lindon Barrett

Justin A. Joyce, Dwight A. Mcbride, and John Carlos Rowe (eds)

in Racial Blackness and the Discontinuity of Western Modernity

This chapter focuses on the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano/Gustavus Vassa (1745?–1801), the African captured by slave traders in the Niger River region when he was ten years old, taken to the U.S. ... More

This chapter focuses on the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano/Gustavus Vassa (1745?–1801), the African captured by slave traders in the Niger River region when he was ten years old, taken to the U.S. South, sold to a West Indian planter, who then worked aboard slave ships sailing between the Caribbean and England until he was nineteen. Buying his freedom, he continued his life as a merchant seaman and quartermaster for many years, working vigorously for the abolition of slavery, marrying an English woman, and serving as Commissary of Stores for freed slaves returning to Sierra Leone. The chapter demonstrates how Equiano/Vassa's “binomial being” elaborates the social and psychological consequences of the Euro-American political economy of modernity outlined in the first chapter.Less

Revisiting Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa

Vincent Carretta

in Britain's Black Past

The backlash against challenging the origin story of Olaudah Equiano, author of the influential autobiography The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by ... More

The backlash against challenging the origin story of Olaudah Equiano, author of the influential autobiography The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself, is the subject of this chapter by Vincent Carreta. Since first being published in 1789, the text has achieved canonical status as a rare first-hand account of an African-born person describing the horrors of the Middle Passage and slavery. Interesting Narrative was successfully appropriated political propaganda by abolitionists to help end the transatlantic slave trade and abolish slavery. After revealing archival documents calling Equiano’s birth in Africa into question, Caretta describes the firestorm of criticism he faced, including threats of assault, from some scholars. He suggests that the unwillingness of some scholars to confront the possibility that Equiano may have lied about his birthplace is too high stakes as it opens the door to questioning how much of Interesting Narrative is fiction and how much work that relies on the text may require reexamination.Less

“Of Remarkable Omens in My Favour”: Olaudah Equiano, Two Identities, and the Cultivation of a Literary Economic Exchange

Edward L. Robinson

in Anywhere But Here: Black Intellectuals in the Atlantic World and Beyond

“‘Of Remarkable Omens in My Favor’: Olaudah Equiano, Two Identities, and the Cultivation of a Literary Economic Exchange” by Edward L. Robinson Jr., explores the The Interesting Narrative of the Life ... More

“‘Of Remarkable Omens in My Favor’: Olaudah Equiano, Two Identities, and the Cultivation of a Literary Economic Exchange” by Edward L. Robinson Jr., explores the The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or, Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789) as a work that seeks to “ingeniously” cultivate a relationship between two identities and two audiences—African and European. “For Equiano,” Robinson writes in his essay, “the narrative stands as a careful negotiation of the complexities that are critical in cultivating socio-political and economic capital in the commercial Atlantic.” Again the past, real or imaginary, plays an important role in seeking legitimacy with multiple audiences. As a way to connect with his European audiences, Equiano scripted an African past,— adopted the European name Gustavus Vassa in reference to Swedish King Gustav I, and succeeded in combining both narratives. Imbued with the values and ideals representative of both communities in the Atlantic, his narrative becomes a voice against racial injustice and slavery.Less

Captivity, Desire, Trade: The Forging of National Form

Lindon Barrett

Justin A. Joyce, Dwight A. Mcbride, and John Carlos Rowe (eds)

in Racial Blackness and the Discontinuity of Western Modernity

This chapter continues the discussion of Equiano/Vassa's autobiography, focusing on its role in the literary tradition as the most important eighteenth-century slave narrative in order for Barrett to ... More

This chapter continues the discussion of Equiano/Vassa's autobiography, focusing on its role in the literary tradition as the most important eighteenth-century slave narrative in order for Barrett to set up the long tradition of the fugitive slave narrative in its pre-classic (prior to 1800), classic (1830–1865), and postbellum (1865 and later) versions. It then turns to a number of fugitive slave narratives and related abolitionist texts from the classic period: William Grimes's Narrative of the Life of William Grimes, the Runaway Slave (1855); James Bradley's 1835 journalistic account of his own enslavement; David Walker's Appeal to the Colored Citizens of the World, but in Particular, and Very Expressly to Those of the United States of America (1829); Frederick Douglass's Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (1845) and My Bondage and My Freedom (1855).Less

Salvation Comes to a Sailor

Olaudah Equiano

in Early Evangelicalism: A Reader

This chapter presents excerpts from Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789). Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a ... More

This chapter presents excerpts from Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789). Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a former slave from Nigeria who became a celebrity in Britain in the last quarter of the century. In May 1772, he joined an expedition led by Constantine John Phipps toward the North Pole, with the goal of finding a shorter route to India. Convinced that he narrowly escaped death during the Arctic voyage, Equiano searched for spiritual guidance when he returned to London in 1773. He began attending St. James's Anglican parish church at Piccadilly and looked into Quakerism, Roman Catholicism, and Judaism. Equiano also devoted his life to the abolitionist movement in England, working with Thomas Clarkson, William Wilberforce, Granville Sharp, and others in helping to end the Atlantic slave trade in Britain.Less