The reading for September 5 includes Perspectives: The Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade, pp.149-195, some of which you will find below. Please read the assignment carefully before the class period.

 

From
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
or Gustavus Vassa, the African
[The Slave Ship and Its Cargo]

The first object that saluted my eyes when I arrived on the coast was the sea, and a slave ship, which was then riding at anchor, and waiting for its cargo. 1 These filled me with astonishment, that was soon converted into terror, which I am yet at a loss to describe, and much more the then feelings of my mind when I was carried on board. I was immediately handled and tossed up to see if I was sound, by some of the crew; and I was now persuaded that I had got into a world of bad spirits, and that they were going to kill me. Their complexions too, differing so much from ours, their long hair, and the language they spoke, which was very different from any I had ever heard, united to confirm to me in this belief. Indeed such were the horrors of my views and fears at the moment, that if ten thousand worlds had been my own, I would have freely parted with them all to have exchanged my condition with the meanest slave in my own country. . . .

 

 

1. Captured by slavers along with his sister, Equiano was soon separated from her and sold to different masters over a period of several months before reaching the African coast for shipment to Barbados.

 

 

Perspectives: The Abolition of Slavery and the Slave Trade

• The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Do we trust Equiano's account of his life of slavery as "authoritative"? Where does this authority come from? Skillful writing? Or somewhere else?
• The History of Mary Prince: Does Mary Prince's autobiographical narrative in any way use her gender for rhetorical purposes? Does it matter that "Mary Prince" is a woman rather than a man?
• The Benevolent Planters: To modern ears, this is a ridiculous piece. Can you present an argument that would pinpoint why it might have been effective in 1789 as a support of plantation owners?
• A Poem of the Inhumanity of the Slave Trade: Compare the characterization of Luco here to the self-characterization of Equiano and the characterization of Oran in The Benevolent Planters. Which one is Luco more like? In what way are the characterizations achieved?
• Southey's sonnets: The sonnet is one of the most venerable of English verse forms. (See Glossary definition on p. 2928 for an explanation of how it works.) Compare the more difficult, condensed poetry of Southey to the simpler narrative style of Hannah More in The Sorrows of Yamba. Thinking of these poems as "propoganda," which are more effective? Southey's or More's? What makes propaganda successful? Is propaganda different from art?
• Clarkson, The History of the Rise, Progress, & Accomplishments of the Abolition of the African Slave-Trade by the British Parliament: What are the most effective details Clarkson uses in his account? What allows these particular details to work upon readers? Why should we care?

Text and notes taken from The Longman Anthology of British Literature copyright ©1999 by Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc.
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