The Interesting
Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the
African. Written by Himself (1789)
By Olaudah Equiano
Edited by Angelo Costanzo
"The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is
the foundational text of African-American autobiography. This
welcome edition, ably edited by Angelo Costanzo, provides
readers of today a generous introduction to Equiano’s life
and times in a highly readable and informative format."
WILLIAM L. ANDREWS, E. Maynard Adams Professor of
English, University North Carolina - Chapel Hill
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano
or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself was the
first work that began the nineteenth-century genre of slave
narrative autobiographies. Written and published by
Equiano, a former slave, it became a prototype for those that
followed.
Kidnapped in Africa as a child, Equiano was transported to
the Caribbean and then to Virginia, bought by a Quaker
shipowner, and placed in service at sea. Aboard various
American and British ships, he sailed throughout the world,
and he continued to do so after having purchased his
freedom in 1766. Once settled in London, he fought
tirelessly to end slavery, and his Interesting Narrative was
placed on members’ desks in the Houses of Parliament.
This edition of The Interesting Narrative places the text in
the center of abolitionist activity in the late eighteenth
century
and is edited by one of the world’s leading experts on
Equiano. Equiano knew many of the leading abolitionist
figures of his time, and this edition allows readers to trace
the common ideas and cross-influences in the works of the
political and literary figures who fought for the end of slavery
in America and England. The original 1789 text of the
narrative has been used for the Broadview edition with
Equiano’s subsequent emendations included in the
appendices.
Contents
Preface
Introduction
Olaudah Equiano: A Brief Chronology
A Note on the Text
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano,
or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself.
Appendix A: Letters and Reviews
1. Letters and Reviews Added to Other Editions of The
Interesting Narrative
2. Reviews of The Interesting Narrative Not Included in
Equiano’s Editions
i. The Analytical Review, May 1789.
ii. The Gentleman’s Magazine, June 1789.
iii. The Oracle, 25 April, 1792.
iv. The Star, 27 April, 1792.
Appendix B: Writings of the First Abolitionist Movement
1. A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies, Benezet
2. Some Historical Account of Guinea, Benezet
3. An Account of the European Settlements in America,
Burke
4. An Essay on the Slavery and Commerce of the Human
Species, Clarkson
5. "The Negro’s Complaint," Cowper
6. Letters from an American Farmer, de Crevecoeur
7. Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic
of the Slavery...., Cugoano
8. An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa,
Falconbridge
9. An Answer to the Rev. Mr. Clarkson’s Essay on
Slavery....,
Francklyn
10. "On the Slave Trade," Franklin
11. A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the
Life...., Gronniosaw
12. Scriptual Researches on the Licitness of the
Slave-Trade, Harris
13. "Of National Characters," Hume
14. Notes on the State of Virginia, Jefferson
15. A Narrative of the Lord’s Wonderful Dealings with John
Marrant...., Marrant
16. Thoughts upon the African Slave Trade, Newton
17. Britain’s Commercial Interest Explained and Improved,
Postlethwayt
18. An Essay on the Treatment and Conversion of African
Slaves...., Ramsay
19. A Vindication of the Address, to the Inhabitants of the
British Settlements, on the Slavery of the Negroes in
America, Rush
20. Letters of the Late Ignatius Sancho_
21. A Representation of the Injustice and Dangerous
Tendency of Tolerating Slavery, Sharp
22. Cursory Remarks upon the Reverend Mr. Ramsay’s
Essay...., Tobin
23. An Apology for Negro Slavery, Turnbull
24. Thoughts upon Slavery, Wesley
25. The Speech of William Wilberforce ... on the Question of
the Abolition of the Slave Trade
26. "A Poem on the Bill Lately Passed for Regulating the
Slave Trade," Williams
27. A Vindication of the Rights of Men, Wollstonecraft
28. Some Considerations on the Keeping of Negroes,
Woolman
Select Bibliography
Angelo Costanzo (Professor of English Emeritus,
Shippensburg University) is one of the world’s leading
experts on Equiano. He has written on slave narratives and
African-American Literature, and is the author of Surprizing
Narrative: Olaudah Equiano and the Beginnings of Black
Autobiography.
2001 5.5x8.5 paperback 330pp. 1551112620
$12.95 CDN $9.95 US £6.95 UK
SUBJECT: ENGLISH
SERIES: BROADVIEW LITERARY TEXTS
PUBLISHER: Broadview Press, Peterborough,Ont.
The Female
American or, The Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield
By Unca Eliza Winkfield, (pseud)
Edited by Michelle Burnham
"Graced by an uncommonly interesting as well as learned
introduction, this
edition of the virtually unknown novel, The Female American, will
invigorate
any collection of colonial American literature. Indeed, its
obscurity up to now
is surprising, for it seems as central to the modes and issues of
colonial
fiction as such now-standard works as Susanna Rowson's Charlotte
Temple: A Tale of Truth or Hannah Foster's The Coquette."
--Myra Jehlen,
Rutgers University
"The Female American is a fascinating Robinsoniad .... An
original blend of
predecessor narratives by Behn, Defoe, and Penelope Aubin
...." --John
Richetti, University of Pennsylvania
"This adeptly edited, page-turner of a novel is a
fascinating descendant of
Robinson Crusoe and an important example of the kinds of
cross-Atlantic
fiction being written to explore issues of colonialism, race,
gender,
nationhood, and human rights in the decade before the American
Revolution.
In contrast to Smollett's Humphry Clinker and Brooke's The
History of
Emily Montague, ... The Female American dares to give us a
bi-racial
heroine, a nuanced portrait of American Indians who can ask
whites ‘Had you
no lands of your own?’ and a startling exploration of
religious imperialism."
--Paula Backscheider, Stevens Eminent Scholar, Auburn University
When it first appeared in 1767, The Female American was called a
"sort of
second Robinson Crusoe; full of wonders." Indeed, The Female
American
is an adventure novel about an English protagonist shipwrecked on
a
deserted isle, where survival requires both individual ingenuity
and careful
negotiations with visiting local Indians. But what most
distinguishes
Winkfield’s novel is her protagonist, a woman who is of
mixed race. Whereas
the era’s popular novels typically featured women in the
confining contexts of
the home and the bourgeois marriage market, Winkfield’s
novel portrays an
autonomous and mobile heroine living alone in the wilds of the
New World,
independently interacting with both Native Americans and visiting
Europeans.
The Female American is one of the earliest novelistic efforts to
articulate an
American identity, and more specifically to investigate what that
identity might
promise for women, while at the same time, the novel also engages
with
questions of what a British identity might look like refracted
through the
experiences of a new world.
Far from being canonical, The Female American is largely unknown,
even to
18th C scholars, though that being said, advance interest in this
title has
been extremely high. This is the only edition available. While
purportedly
written by Unca Eliza Winkfield, Burnham has been able to find no
historical
record that such a person existed, and while the name set her on
a number
of leads that seemed quite in keeping with the thread of the
novel, all led
ultimately to dead ends. Accordingly, there is a discussion of
authorship
issues, and the Broadview edition also contains excerpts from
English and
American source texts.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
The Place of the Text
Problems of Truth and Virtue
Winkfield and Crusoe: Further
Comparisons
Problems of Authorship and
Identity
England and America: Further
Sources
A Note on the Text
The Female American; or the Adventures of Unca Eliza Winkfield
Appendix A: "English" Sources
1. Aphra Behn
2. Daniel Defoe
3. Peter Longueville
Appendix B: "American" Sources
1. Thomas Hariot
2. George Percy
3. John Smith
Appendix C: Reviews of The Female American
1. The Monthly Review
2. The Critical Review
Works Cited/Recommended Reading
Michelle Burnham is an Assistant Professor of English at Santa
Clara
University and is the author of Captivity and Sentiment: Cultural
Exchange in
American Literature 1682-1861 (UP of New England, 1997).
2000 5.5x8.5 paperback 196pp. 1551112485
$15.95 CDN $12.95 US £8.95 UK
SUBJECT: ENGLISH
SERIES: BROADVIEW LITERARY TEXTS
PUBLISHER: Broadview Press, Peterborough,Ont.
Ormond
by Charles Brockden Brown
Edited by Mary Chapman
Description/Comments for Ormond:
Brown is often called the first American novelist. First
published in 1799,
Ormond was inspired by enlightenment philosophers and Gothic
writers. The novel engages with many of the period’s popular
debates
about women's education, marriage, and the morality of violence,
while the
plot revolves around the Gothic themes of seduction, murder,
incest,
impersonation, romance and disease.
"In her marvelous new edition of Ormond, Mary Chapman has
given
scholars, teachers and student of Charles Brockden Brown what
they have
longed for: an affordable paperback edition complete with a
trenchant,
historically-textured introduction to Brown's least know, and
most
underrated major novel. Chapman's exhaustive labour in both the
classic
and contemporary criticism of the early American novel, coupled
with her
thorough knowledge of the philosophical and political pamphlet
literature
of the early national period, afford the modern reader the very
sort of
'thick description' so often lost in considering the work of
America's first
'professional novelist." --Julie Stern, Northwestern
University.
Appendices:
A: Judith Sargent Murray’s "On the Equality of the
Sexes" (1790)
B: From John Robison’s Proofs of a Conspiracy Against All
the
Religions and Governments of Europe...
C: From Jedidiah Morse’s "A Sermon Exhibiting the
Present Dangers,
and Consequent Duties of the Citizens of the United States"
Mary Chapman is a professor of American literature in the
Department
of English at the University of British Columbia.
1999 5.5x8.5 paperback 400pp. 1551110911
$16.95 CDN $12.95 US £8.95 UK
http://www.broadviewpress.com/bvbooks.asp?bookid=106
March 22, 2001