Nearer My Freedom
The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself
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- $17.99
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
Millions of Africans were enslaved during the transatlantic slave trade, but few recorded their personal experiences. Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is perhaps the most well known of the autobiographies that exist. Using this narrative as a primary source text, authors Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge share Equiano's life story in found verse, supplemented with annotations to give readers historical context. This poetic approach provides interesting analysis and synthesis, helping readers to better understand the original text. Follow Equiano from his life in Africa as a child to his enslavement at a young age, his travels across the Atlantic Ocean and Mediterranean Sea, his liberation, and his life as a free man.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Using the historic autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself as this book's source material, educators Edinger (Africa Is My Home) and Younge, a debut author, craft a moving found-verse narrative that draws from the subject's life to deliver an expansive and textured telling. In this significant adaptation, the authors mirror Equiano's chronological trajectory to outline his early life "in that part of Guinea, Africa... where trade for slaves is carried on"; his time as an enslaved person, during which he "determined to seize the first opportunity/ of making my escape"; and his later occupation as a free abolitionist. According to an introduction, the creators reorganized "a selection of words, phrases, and sentences" from Equiano's text into new and succinct passages, providing an effective and unusual through line to the original. Brief sidebars throughout offer historical context, ensuring that readers grasp the gravity of the subject's experiences. Without losing the source text's emotional heft, Edinger and Younge's visceral poems respectfully provide an effective entry point into the seminal work. A timeline, glossary, and extensive notes conclude. Ages 10–up.
