[Gutenberg 15399] • The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African / Written By Himself

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The narrative is argued to be a variety of styles, such as a slavery narrative, travel narrative, and spiritual narrative. The book describes Equiano's time spent in enslavement, and documents his attempts at becoming an independent man through his study of the Bible, and his eventual success in gaining his own freedom and in business thereafter.Prior to chapter 1, Equiano writes, "An invidious falsehood having appeared in the Oracle of the 25th, and the Star of the 27th of April 1792, with a view to hurt my character, and to discredit and prevent the sale of my Narrative." Like many literary works written by black people during this time, Equiano's work was discredited as a false presentation of his slavery experience. To combat these accusations, Equiano includes a set of letters written by white people who "knew me when I first arrived in England, and could speak no language but that of Africa." In his article, Preface to Blackness: Text and Pretext[4] Henry Louis Gates Jr. discusses the use of prefaces by black authors to humanize their being which in turn made their work credible. In this section of the book, Equiano includes this preface to avoid further discrediting. Other notable works with a "preface to blackness" include the poems of Phyllis Wheatley