The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself
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discussed in biography
- In Olaudah Equiano
…abolitionist and writer whose autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789), became the first internationally popular slave narrative. In it Equiano expresses a strong abolitionist stance and provides firsthand testimony of the transatlantic slave trade as well as…
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history of African American literature
- In African American literature: Antebellum literature
…contemporary, published his two-volume autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. A British citizen who had experienced enslavement in the Americas, Equiano has been traditionally regarded, along with Wheatley, as the founder of African literature in English by virtue…
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place in slave narrative literature
- In slave narrative
…international best-seller was the two-volume Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself (1789), which traces Equiano’s career from boyhood in West Africa, through the dreadful transatlantic Middle Passage, to eventual freedom and economic success as a British citizen. Introducing the slave…
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