An Examination of a Narrative

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 freedo

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of narrow escapes at sea. Surviving the Arctic ice pack "caused me to reflect deeply on my eternal state, and to seek the Lord with full purpose of heart ere it was too late. I rejoiced greatly; and heartily thanked the Lord for directing me to London, where I was determined to work out my own salvation, and in so doing procure a title to heaven; being the result of a mind blinded by ignorance and sin" (150). Despite periods of despair, Equiano is gradually drawn to the spiritual comfort of Christianity, though he remarks that he considered "those who in general termed themselves Christians not so honest or good in their morals as the Turks" (150). What is important about his increasingly evangelical temperament, however, is that it positions him for the enterprise of abolitionism. A moral-spiritual component is always present in Equiano's indictment of slavery. Indeed, he becomes so much a professing member of the Church of England that he has hopes of sharing his newfound religious wisdom by becoming a sponsored missionary in Africa so that he can convert his countrymen to Christianity (183-5). He does become a kind of agent for the wholesale repatriation of poor Negroes from England to Sierra Leone, where they would be provid
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Approximate Word count = 2039
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)