The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings

Completely revised and edited with an introduction and notes by Vincent Carretta

An exciting and often terrifying adventure story, as well as an important precursor to such famous nineteenth-century slave narratives as Frederick Douglass's autobiographies, Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative recounts his kidnapping in Africa at the age of ten, his service as the slave of an officer in the British Navy, his ten years of labor on slave ships until he was able to purchase his freedom in 1766, and his life afterward as a leading and respected figure in the antislavery movement in England. A spirited autobiography, a tale of spiritual quest and fulfillment, and a sophisticated treatise on religion, politics, and economics, The Interesting Narrative is a work of enduring literary and historical value.

Part travel book and adventure story and part slave narrative, this famous autobiography recounts how the author was kidnapped in Africa at age 11 and later purchased his freedom and became a leading and respected figure in London's anti-slavery movement. The book also includes subscription lists (the Interesting Narrative was originally published in installments), explanatory and textual notes, correspondence and reviews, and Equiano's will. Annotation ©2004 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was a former slave who became an outspoken opponent of the slave trade.

Vincent Carretta is professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is the editor of the Penguin Classics editions of the Complete Writings of Phillis Wheatley, Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho, an African, and Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery and Other Writings by Ottobah Cugoano.