Anti-Slavery Slave Narratives

Many slave narratives, like The Interesting Narrative, also function as anti-slavery or abolitionist writings. Olaudah Equiano skillfully weaved his abolitionist sentiments into his autobiographical account of his life as a formerly enslaved person. Although the validity of Equiano’s story is debated by scholars, the idea he may have relied on the travel narratives of his European contemporaries to construe a desirable and heroic image of his homeland in an effort to humanize himself for his audience is a genius argumentation strategy. In fact, other slave narrators, like Harriet Jacobs, employed similar appeals to not only convince white audiences that slavery was unsustainable, but that slaves were human. I argue that in an effort to abolish slavery, Equiano creates a persuasive mode that becomes characteristic of African literary tradition as seen by its presence within other slave narratives.

At the beginning of the narrative, Equiano calls careful attention to the details of his life in Africa prior to enslavement and his voyage to the New World via the Middle Passage. When describing his life as a young boy in Africa, Equiano paints a picture of Africa as a well-developed society that is rich with culture, custom, and tradition: “We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians, and poets. Thus every great event, such as a triumphant return from battle, or other cause of public rejoicing, is celebrated in public dances, which are accompanied with songs and music suited to the occasion” (7). In this way, Equiano is trying to demonstrate for his audience that Africans are not barbarians who spend their time warring or scavenging, but rather Africans live in organized societies with rich and wholesome cultural practices like communal dance and song events. Essentially, Equiano is trying to disrupt the narrative that many 18th-century Europeans prescribed themselves to－ Africans are primal people, a step below human. Equiano quickly moves from describing life in Africa to life during the Middle Passage. Equiano paints a gruesome picture of life during his voyage on the Middle Passage ranging from descriptions of sordid living conditions, death, and the variety of abuses he saw or experienced. Equiano also takes time to call attention to the feelings of loss and grief he experienced as a result of not only the deaths of those around him, but also the woeful experience of being wrenched from one’s family unexpectedly and thrust into such extremely distressing conditions.

Because it is unclear whether whole parts of Equiano’s autobiographical account are true, his careful attention to extracting an assemblage of details from the travel narratives and scholarship of his European contemporaries in order to contrive a narrative that humanizes Africans and renders the institution of slavery as unacceptable is an argumentative feat. Such an element of argumentative deft is present in the 19th-century slave narrative written by Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Although Jacobs’ account is considered to be true, there are still elements of Equiano’s argumentative skill present in her work. For example, Jacobs carefully organizes and details her autobiographical account in such a way that she makes her readers understand the importance of her family. By centering her family, Jacobs establishes for her audience that slaves are also people who have families and moreover that the institution of slavery upends maternity and family structures. Much like Equiano, Jacobs establishes that slaves are humans with human qualities (like craving the intimacy of family and togetherness) and that slavery, as an institution, disrupts that.

Works Cited

Equiano, Olaudah. The Interesting Narrative Of The Life Of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, Written By Himself. 1789.

Jacobs, Harriet. Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Edited by Lydia Maria Child, Thayer & Eldridge, 1861.