Lesson 1.5 · Unit 1 · RI.11-12.6, RI.11-12.5
The narrative that argued to a reading public
Equiano's autobiography was published in 1789, went through nine editions in his lifetime, and was written to change a specific law. It is the first major slave narrative in English and it is constructed as an argument throughout.
- Olaudah Equiano published The Interesting Narrative in 1789, in London, and it is in the public domain.
- He sold it by subscription and toured Britain promoting it, which makes it a commercial as well as a political act.
- His purpose was the abolition of the slave trade, which Parliament voted on repeatedly during the book's life.
- The book is addressed to a reading public with power, namely people who could petition and vote.
- He establishes ethos before he accuses, presenting himself as a Christian, a merchant and a British subject.
- The Middle Passage chapter is the book's evidentiary center and is written with deliberate restraint.
- The slave narrative as a genre begins here, and Douglass and Jacobs inherit its conventions.
- Its commercial success was part of the argument, since a bestselling book by a formerly enslaved man refuted a premise of the trade it opposed.
Where students lose marks: reading the book as a memoir that happens to be political. It was written to move votes, and every structural choice in it serves that purpose.
The text. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, 1789. Public domain.
The closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate, added to the number in the ship, which was so crowded that each had scarcely room to turn himself, almost suffocated us. This produced copious perspirations, so that the air soon became unfit for respiration, from a variety of loathsome smells, and brought on a sickness among the slaves, of which many died.
O, ye nominal Christians! might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?
Step one: examine the register of the first passage. Closeness, heat, number, crowded, perspirations, respiration, smells, sickness. The vocabulary is clinical and the syntax is causal: this produced that, which brought on the other.
Step two: state why he writes it this way. He is presenting evidence to readers disposed to suspect exaggeration from an interested witness. Clinical description cannot be dismissed as sensationalism, and a chain of physical causes reads as testimony rather than as complaint.
Step three: notice the one emotional word. "Loathsome" is the only judgment in the passage, and it is applied to smells rather than to people. Everything else is reported.
Step four: state the rhetorical economy. The reader supplies the horror. Equiano gives the conditions, the mechanism and the mortality and lets the conclusion form in the reader's own mind, where it is more durable than an accusation would be.
Step five: turn to the second passage. "O, ye nominal Christians!" The register changes completely, from clinical report to direct address in the language of a sermon.
Step six: identify the argument in it. He quotes the Golden Rule to people who profess it and asks whether they learned the trade from it. The argument is made entirely from the audience's own stated beliefs, which is the strongest available position.
Step seven: notice the word "nominal". He does not say they are not Christians. He says they are Christians in name, which is a narrower and more defensible charge and one they cannot answer without demonstrating otherwise.
Step eight: state what the structure accomplishes. Chapters of restrained evidence, punctuated by direct appeals grounded in the reader's own religion. The evidence earns the right to the appeal, and the appeal converts the evidence into an obligation. That combination is the slave narrative's basic form, and Douglass inherits it sixty years later.
Questions 1 to 5 are recall. Questions 6 to 10 ask for reasoning.
- When and where was the Narrative published?
Show the full solution
London, 1789
- How did Equiano sell it?
Show the full solution
By subscription, touring Britain to promote it
- What was his purpose?
Show the full solution
The abolition of the slave trade
- What does he quote in the second passage?
Show the full solution
The Golden Rule
- Which writers inherit this genre?
Show the full solution
Douglass and Jacobs
- Why is the Middle Passage passage written clinically?
Show the full solution
Because it is evidence presented to readers disposed to suspect exaggeration from an interested witness. Clinical description of closeness, heat, crowding and the resulting sickness cannot be dismissed as sensationalism, and a chain of physical causes reads as testimony. The restraint is a response to a specific anticipated objection rather than a temperamental preference. Clinical evidence cannot be dismissed as sensationalism
- What does leaving the horror to the reader accomplish?
Show the full solution
A conclusion a reader forms is more durable than one they are handed, and it also cannot be attributed to the writer's bias. Equiano supplies the conditions, the mechanism and the mortality, and the only judgment in the passage is the word "loathsome" applied to smells. Everything the reader concludes about the trade they concluded themselves. A conclusion the reader forms cannot be blamed on the writer's bias
- Why is arguing from the Golden Rule the strongest available position?
Show the full solution
Because it makes the case entirely from the audience's own stated beliefs. A reader who professes Christianity cannot reject the premise without abandoning something they claim, and cannot accept it without confronting the question Equiano asks. Arguments built from an opponent's commitments leave them nowhere neutral to stand. It argues from the audience's own professed commitments
- Why is "nominal" the right word?
Show the full solution
It makes a narrower and more defensible charge. He does not say his readers are not Christians, which would be an accusation about their souls and easily rejected. He says they are Christians in name, which is a claim about the gap between profession and conduct and can only be answered by changing the conduct. It charges a gap between profession and conduct, not unbelief
- Describe the book's basic structure and what it accomplishes.
Show the full solution
Chapters of restrained evidence punctuated by direct appeals grounded in the reader's own religion. The evidence earns the right to make the appeal, and the appeal converts the evidence from information into an obligation. That alternation is the slave narrative's founding form, and Douglass is still using it sixty years later. Restrained evidence alternating with appeals from the reader's own beliefs