1 янв 1789 г. - The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Описание:

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African was published in England. It was an autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, an African who was kidnapped by slave traders when he was 11 years old, sometime in the mid-1750s. Equiano was brought on board a slave ship and shipped to Barbados. Shortly thereafter, he was purchased by a British sea captain who named his Gustavus Vassa. He fought as a soldier in the Seven Years' War and had enough money in 1766 to buy his way out of slavery. In his book, Equiano reminds the reader that white people were once uncivilized like the Africans, but that did not make them inferior. He asserts that all races could become more intellectual and civilized, and so Africans did not deserve to be enslaved. To support this notion, the front cover of the book is Equiano in European clothing and holding a Bible, to suggest that Africans could become civilized like Europeans. The book is the best-known first-person account of a slave in the 18th century.