INTRODUCTION + READING ASSIGNMENT + WRITING ASSIGNMENT
Assignment 13:
OLAUDAH EQUIANO & PHILLIS WHEATLEY

Although the first African slaves began arriving in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1619, a century and a half would elapse before the first writings by African Americans found their way into print. Two representative instances are Olaudah Equiano (whose Europeanized name was Gustavus Vassa) and Phillis Wheatley (separated so young from both Africa and her mother that she seems to have forgotten her African name).

Equiano's Narrative borrows from both the Puritan spiritual autobiography and the narratives of Indian captivity to create a new literary form: the slave narrative. The triumphant expression of this form is that of Frederick Douglass, in 1845. But Equiano's text, published in England in 1789 and two years later in America, has all the ingredients that Douglass would eventually employ. The slave narratives, like the Indian captivity narratives, contain accounts of captivity and deliverance; and the underlying structure is that of the teleological journey or quest. That is, the narrator tells of walking a purposeful path, from birth into bondage into freedom, punctuated throughout by episodes showing both the brutality of slave masters and the self-reliant dignity of the slave, who is watched over by Divine providence. "I might say that my sufferings were great; but when I compare my lot with that of most of my countrymen, I regard myself, as a particular favorite of heaven, and acknowledge the mercies of providence in every occurrence of life," writes Equiano.

In 1845 Douglass would downplay the importance of Divine providence. For Equiano, however, the slave (like the Indian captive) will be redeemed, physically as well as spiritually, by the guidance of providence. His language is polished and at times erudite. Modest about putting his story before a cynical public, he tries to present himself as a common man: "I offer here the history of neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant." In spite of this modesty, however, Equiano's is the tale of a remarkably self-possessed man, one who so successfully embodied the principles of Ben Franklin's "Poor Richard" that he would eventually, by virtue of his hard work and thrift, purchase his freedom from a benevolent master.

Phillis Wheatley also attributes to the operations of Divine providence all the blessings of her life in captivity, bondage, and then limited freedom. Wheatley also implicitly affirms the power of European culture by writing in the conventional forms of English verse (in heroic couplets, for example); and throughout her work she seems to insist on Christian orthodoxy as a key factor in uplifting the slave from bondage. Only rarely does she express any resentment, seen for example in her "On Being Brought from Africa to America." Otherwise she pays homage to American institutions, and prays--naively, perhaps--that the Revolution will be an occasion for releasing all American slaves from their chains.

 Reading Assignment
  1. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (pp. 751-786).
  2. Phyllis Wheatley, selected poetry: "On Being Brought from Africa to America," "To S.M. a Young African Painter," and "To His Excellency, General Washington" (pp. 824-835).
Writing Assignment
  1. Briefly summarize how, and by whom, Equiano is taken captive and sent to the Atlantic coast.

  2. Perhaps one of the most striking aspects of Equiano's narrative is that it provides readers with a view of Europeans from the viewpoint of a captured African. In a paragraph or two, detail some of the main differences--of geography and culture--to which Equiano testifies.

  3. What are the main facts about Equiano's eventual achievement of his freedom? What things does he attribute to providence, and what things to his own self-reliance? For both questions, briefly summarize the main points.

  4. Equiano is freed in 1766, and thereafter takes up residence in England. So we may well ask: What makes Equiano's Narrative a work of American literature? Write several well argued paragraphs in reply to this question.

  5. Phillis Wheatley's poem, "On Being Brought from Africa to America" makes effective use of irony to drive home a point about the potential for "redemption." Detail how that irony works, noting for instance the potential for ambiguous meaning in the word "refined," in line 8.

  6. What qualities of the African American painter, Scipio Moorhead, does Wheatley single out for praise? Why?

  7. Wheatley's poem to General Washington (pages 834-835) contains (as the footnote remarks) what appear to be the nation's first references to "Columbia," as mythic, maternal figure of the new Republic. In a paragraph of two, summarize the main features (perhaps in opposition to "Britannia") that Wheatley attributes to this figurehead.

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