Olaudah Equiano Analysis

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In Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography, The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings, identity plays a central role in how Equiano describes himself and his past. Throughout the narrative, the author struggles to grip with aspects of his identity, torn between a former African slave and a free Englishman, in a variety of ways. This paper will seek to lie out how he grapples with this self-identification problem by examining his personal narrative.
Before delving into the author’s identity’s struggle, one must understand his past. Born in Eboe in 1745, Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 11. After spending a brief period of time in Virginia, the author globetrotted on different slave and naval ships, as his voyages bring him to many different places such as England, the Caribbean, and the southern United States. Michael Henry Pascal, one of his masters during this period, gives the author the name of Gustavas Vassa, which he himself as for the rest of his life. During this time, he also converts to Christianity. After his travels with Pascal, Robert King, a Quaker from Philadelphia, purchases the author in 1763. Under King, he works as a clerk as well as on King’s trading sloops. Through minor exchanges permitted by King, he is able to earn and save enough money to purchase his freedom in 1766. Shortly after, the author settles in England in 1767, where he attends school and works as an assistant to scientist Dr. Charles Irving. As a freeman, the author travels extensively, including a 1773 expedition with Irving in search of a Northeast Passage between Europe and Asia, as well as to the Mediterranean and the West Indies. One of these voyages includes a trip to Africa in order to convert Africans to Chris...

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...hor’s Christian convictions grow so strong that he travels from England to Africa in order to convert his fellows Africans to Christianity, an acknowledgement that he has completely renounced his old beliefs as well as a belief that Africans, which he intermittently identifies as, should do the same.
The struggle undergone by the author in realizing his identity is a microcosm for how slaves reconciled their past, as Africans, with their present, as slaves or residents of the New World or Europe. As the author demonstrates, for some this inner identity conflict may never be resolved. No phrase better epitomizes this struggle than the closing line of a letter sent by the author to the Queen towards the end of the narrative, which contains the salutation “I am your Majesty’s most dutiful and devoted servant to command, GUSTAVUS VASSA, The oppressed Ethiopian” (232).

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