Bryccan Carey’s website, which breaks down the facts to the argument of Olaudah Equiano’s birthplace, is all circumstantial, but gives the reader enough evidence to believe either side. The attempt to describe his birthplace and abduction with specific details makes me believe Equiano was not trying to deceive the reader, but attempting to capture memories from a troubled and terrifying early childhood. The inaccurate rumination of his past can be seen in his discussion of perfumes used by the Igbo and the possible accuracy of the lands scent.1 When reviewing the facts of his childhood, one must also understand that he did not learn to read and write till the age of 16, when he ultimately could take notes on the chronicles his life.2 Remembering specific details without the assistance of reference material would explain the inaccuracies in dates and location.
As for Equiano’s insistence of a South Carolina heritage when he was baptized, he may have not understood the question and believed the clergy were asking where he was from in the New World. Considering that Equiano was a child when he was baptized he may not have had sufficient command of the English language to realize he was asking where Equiano was specifically born. As a young man on the Arctic expedition, Equiano may have, as Carey suggests, have considered the error unimportant, or more likely, as Dr. Barnes suggests in the fifth lecture, seen the advantage in being considered a Creole, born in the New World over having been born in Africa. And when Equiano joined Constantine Phipp’s Artic Expedition he again listed his birthplace as South Carolina, but as Dr. Barnes stated in his fifth lecture, Equiano may have only wanted to be labeled at the time as a Creole.
1. Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, ed. Robert J.
Allison, Second ed. (Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2007), 47.
2. Ibid, 83.
Dean,
ReplyDeleteI agree fully on your blog of Equiano. I feel like we had similar ideas on the outcome of our answers. I felt that it would be hard for kid as young as Equiano was to actually understand what they were asking him when he was baptized and fully agree with him not learning how to read and write as well as English til he was sixteen years old. With that in mind i would find that hard to for a man to fully understand one of the hardest languages to learn to be able to speak perfectly and remember everything from a troubled past. Going back to his baptizing as a kid; it would have been impossible at that age and with very little knowledge with reading and writing to be able to tell them where he was from and records from his past if they didnt speak the same language. I felt that you used Dr. Barnes lectures perfectly in your response and proof of your argument. Short and sweet but with enough support for the blog.