The purpose of this research is to examine The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano written by Himself. The plan of the research will be to set forth the historical and cultural context in which Equiano's autobiography emerged, and then to explore the content of Equiano's world view, including the emotional, intellectual, and spiritual content of his self-concept and his intention in writing the narrative, meanwhile discussing features of the book that point up the notion of Equiano's double consciousness, as both insider and outsider in 18th-century Western culture.
In order to appreciate the importance of The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano as a primary historical source, it is essential to realize that Equiano directly embodied far-reaching historical and cultural tendencies in the West. The curious fact of his personal history is that, despite the fact that, as an individual, he was very much acted upon in respect to the vicissitudes of human experience, he appears to have had a degree of insight on one hand into his relatively advantaged position in a social and cultural world that sanctioned slavery and the reach of his ability to be active in that world, and on the other into the structure and meanings of that world. Yet it also seems that he reveals more than he knows about his own situation.
Undoubtedly, Equiano is an advocate for what today would be called a social agenda, as a former slave who has not only purchased his freedom but also advanced his well-being as a free man. He is uniquely qualified to argue his case, based on his experience both in and between two cultures. The narrative has one principal objective: to serve the cause of abolitionism by making plain to Europeans, especially the English, the reach and extent of the "miseries which the Slave-Trade has entailed on my unfortunate countrymen" (30). A secondary purpose is to make clear that Equiano himself has risen abov...