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Alisa Ridout

Dr. Gerald

English 341

2 October 2010

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African,

Written by Himself and Other Antebellum Slave Narratives

(Black Rhetoric Inside a White Envelope)

The antebellum era is the time period before the Civil War. During this time in the newly

established nation of the United States there was a form of racism in America called slavery and

it provided the "cornerstone of social, economic, and political order" in the South (157). It has

been said that "the antebellum slave narrative carried a black message inside a white envelope"

(158). This new genre of writing was popular from 1746 to 1865. It encapsulated religious,

political, economic, and literary elements that were significant to the growing movement towards

freedom and abolishment of slavery. During the time of slavery within the United States whites

were entitled by law to dominate the social order. However, blacks recognized the Christian

gospel as common ground with whites and so used it as a vehicle for change in their literature

and discourse. This formed the foundation for the abolitionist movement and the birth of the

fugitive slave narrative.

On page 154 of The Norton Anthology of African-American Literature it is stated that the

first black people to come to North America were not slaves, however, but explorers. "Under

chattel slavery, the African imported to North America was divested as much as possible of his or

her culture. The newly minted slave was relegated to a condition that the historian Orlando
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Patterson has termed 'social death.'" It is said that what gave American chattel slavery its

uniquely oppressive character and power was its insistence that enslavement was the natural and

proper condition for particular races of people.

One example of slave narrative is The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah

Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself which was published in 1789. The

narrative is a classic story of an eighteenth-century African's descent into slavery and rise to

freedom. Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was raised in an Ibo village in Nigeria, Africa. He was

kidnapped by African raiders and sold into slavery at an early age. Olaudah Equiano's name

changed several times throughout his life with Gustavus Vassa being the name given to him by

an English naval officer on the Middle Passage voyage to the New World; on board Olaudah

Equiano (Gustavus Vassa) served as a cabin boy.

Olaudah Equiano spent many years at sea in various roles and job positions. He obtained

a basic education in London, was baptized in a church, and eventually was sold and shipped to

the West Indies as a slave. While in the West Indies, a Quaker merchant named Robert King,

purchased him, employed him as a clerk and seaman, and allowed Equiano to purchase his

freedom in 1766. Once a free man Equiano went back to England and worked as a hairdresser

and took numerous voyages around the world. He even participated in an effort to find a passage

to India by way of the North Pole. In the 1780's he became involved in the abolitionist

movement to put an end to slavery. Finally, Olaudah Equiano settled down in London and

married an English woman, he fathered two daughters, and died in London in 1797.

The slave narrative entitled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or

Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself is Olaudah Equiano's signature work and
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combines the literary genres of captivity narrative, spiritual autobiography, travel memoir,

adventure story, and abolitionist tract. The work describes the ordeals of slavery imposed on

Equiano and his fellow Africans at the hands of European masters. An excerpt of the original text

of The Interesting Narraive of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African,

Written by Himself is on pages 189-213 of the Norton Anthology of African-American Literature.

The Middle Passage journey taken by Olaudah Equiano after he is captured as a young African

states that young Equiano passes from one African master to another with the last of the masters

being a benevolent father figure to Equiano, and one morning Equiano is abruptly taken away

from the family and sent on board a ship bound for the New World. It is on this Middle Passage

voyage that Equiano is witness to several unspeakable acts of inhumanity against the Africans.

The main point of these narratives is to illustrate the plight which he endured at the hands of the

slave masters during the Middle Passage and then to contrast that story with the glory he found

as a free man.

The Middle Passage starts out with Equiano giving his account of what he saw as he was

brought to the coast, "The first object which saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the

sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo." Equiano’s first

reaction is of terror at the appearance and actions of the ship’s crew, “I was now persuaded that I

had gotten into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me.” The Middle Passage

continues on and tells how Equiano and the fellow slaves on the ship endure the constant torture

and floggings of the Europeans. He finds a group of fellow Africans and he takes solace in their

company. He tells of how the African prisoners try desperately to jump over the side of the ship

to drown themselves and how they would try to starve themselves to death. Of course, the
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penalty for these transgressions was brutal when realized. The section on the Middle Passage

ends with the quote, “Why are parents to lose their children, brothers their sisters, or husbands

their wives? Surely this is a new refinement in cruelty, which, while it has no advantage to atone

for it, thus aggravates distress, and adds fresh horrors even to the wretchedness of slavery.” This

quote sums up the Middle Passage and the utmost cruelty and inhumanity of the slaves who

endured the gruesome journey.

Another antebellum slave narrative that carries somewhat of a black message inside of a

white envelope is Frederick Douglass's autobiography entitled Narrative of the Life of Frederick

Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself (385-452). James McCune Smith, an African-

American physician and abolitionist referred to Douglass as “a Representative American man – a

type of his countrymen.” Douglass was born on Maryland's Eastern Shore to a black slave

woman and an anonymous white man. Douglass had the nerve and determination to stand up to

the strong arm of the white slave masters that repeatedly beat and abused him. He won

recognition as an orator and a writer for the abolitionist cause. He finally set out to publish his

own account of what it was like to be brought up a slave and then to become a fugitive.

Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself was the most

popular antebellum slave narrative published in 1845.

Another antebellum slave narrative that could easily be placed into a white envelope

would be Clotel; or, The President's Daughter by William Wells Brown. Clotel (1853) is the

story of a slave girl who was also a mulatto. This novel was known for moving away from the

stereotypical antebellum slave narrative by telling the story of Clotel, Thomas Jefferson's mixed-

race daughter. Escape of Clotel is Chapter XIX of the novel and it is about the great escape that
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Clotel and her friend William made to the north disguised as a free white lady and her man-

servant who was William, the black slave. Their plan worked and they managed to deceive

people long enough to travel north to free territory. That could be said to be a black message

inside a white envelope, literally.

In conclusion, the antebellum slave narrative lasted from 1746-1865; the years following

the Revolutionary War, but prior to the Civil War. This was when the United States of America

was young and farming and plantations were the main industry. The bondage that the whites

inflicted on the black race of Africans was known as slavery and many blacks rebelled. Their

literature and rhetoric still lives on as the antebellum slave narrative. It is studied for its value

and integrity as outstanding American literature still today, almost 150 years later.