The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Before Frederick Douglass’s Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, there was The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, which is believed to be the originator of the slave narrative, written by himself in 1789. In its introduction, Equiano states that the main purpose of the book is to "excite in [the reader's] august assemblies a sense of compassion of the miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen." He wrote it to express the abuse that slaves endured at the hands of their masters and to condemn the slave trade as an inhumane practice. His claim that he was born in Africa, as he states in the text, has been put into question by some new evidence, but his words still perfectly convey the brutality and realism of journeying across the Atlantic on a slave ship as well as the struggles and great luck needed to gain freedom.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was widely read when it was first published and was also translated into Dutch, German, and Russian. The book has had such a significant impact on the study of African and African-American literature that it is routinely taught in university courses on both English literature and history. Additionally, the book was reissued under the influential Heinemann African Writers Series.

Publication date: 1789
Author: Olaudah Equiano