Multimedia Collection
A Son of Africa
DVD
28 min
1996
HT869 .E6 S65 1996 DVD
The Interesting Narration of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African was the first widely read slave autobiography. It caused a sensation when published in 1789, fueling a growing anti-slavery movement in the U.S. and England. This BBC production employs dramatic reconstruction, archival material and interviews with scholars such as Stuart Hall and Ian Duffield to provide the social and economic context of the 18th century slave trade.
Equiano's narrative begins in the West African village where he was kidnapped into slavery in 1756. He vividly recalls the pestilence and horror of the Middle Passage: "I now wished for the last friend, Death, to relieve me." Eventually the young Equiano was shipped to a Virginia plantation where he witnessed slaves tortured with thumbscrews and the iron muzzle. Sold again to a British naval officer, he learned to read and write, became a skilled trader, and eventually managed to buy his freedom.
Equiano eventually settled in London where he married into English society and became a leading abolitionist. But it was Equiano's book that would prove his most lasting contribution to the abolitionist movement, a book which vividly demonstrated the humanity of Africans as much as the inhumanity of slavery.
Distributed by California Newsreel (www.newsreel.org)
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