The Conventions of Slave Narratives, and Key Themes from Equiano’s Interesting Narrative

  Triangular Trade  English slave ships  Africa to steal/buy slaves  New World Markets to sell slave and pick up cargo (rum, coffee, spices, tobacco, sugar, molasses, etc.)  England to sell cargo.  Middle Passage is the voyage from Africa to New World  13% died along the way.  Between , more than 300,000 slaves were sold in British colonies  Filthy quarters, merciless flogging, disease, filth, rape Context: The Slave Trade

  1772: Lord Mansfield rules that there is no legal basis for slavery in England  1781: Zong incident. Captain threw 133 diseased slaves into shark-infested waters in order to claim on an insurance policy that held the insurer liable for damaged cargo jettisoned in order to salvage the remainder.  1789: Equiano  1791: Wilberforce’s investigation, abolition bill defeated in the wake of the French Revolution  1793: Second bill introduced in the Commons  1807: British Slave Trade Abolished  1808: Clarkson publishes “The History of…the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament”  1820s: Abolition movement boosted by women getting involved, and the publication of monthly abolitionist papers  1831: Mary Prince’s slave narrative, documenting atrocities committed against female slaves  1833: Total emancipation Abolition Timeline

  1 st person account  Violence, brutality  Struggle for identity and esteem as well as freedom  Some begin in Africa  Sale. Sense of property. Loss of self  Appeal to readers for action  Freedom. Taking back possession of oneself  Literacy. Discovery of language  Religious tone—true religion vs. hypocrisy of slaveholders Conventions of Slave Narratives

  Born to prosperous slave-owning tribe in Africa (Nigeria). Kidnapped with sister and sold into slavery—separated from sister  First to Barbados, then to North America  Names: Michael, Jacob, Gustavus Vassa  Pascal broke promise to free him; sold him to James Doran, who sold him to Quaker Robert King  It’s a slave narrative, but also a picaresque adventure, a travel narrative, and a rags-to-riches tale  Maybe born in South Carolina. “Artifice of autobiography.” The crafting of a persona? What does authenticity mean, and what does it matter? Equiano’s Bio

  Contrasts African Slavery with white slavery  216  Untaught perspective. Initial reaction to white people: fear—they’re the cannibals, the savages, like demons or spirits   218—moving ships by some spell  Discovering Christianity and literacy  218—learning  220—knowledge is dangerous  222—Equiano’s honesty (contrast with dishonesty-hypocrisy of slave masters)  Brutality, hypocrisy of slaveholders  217—white man murdered and dumped overboard  219—master betrays him  221—female slaves raped  221—freedom is illusory, “free” blacks re-enslaved  Euphoria of freedom  Key Themes of The Interesting Narrative (1789)

  Amistad Clip