Professor Questions Accuracy of Famed Slave Narrative [interesting read]

The Lakeland Ledger ^ | September 23, 2005 | STEPHEN MANNING

[ChildOfThe60s]

COLLEGE PARK, Md.

Olaudah Equiano wrote with vivid detail of life as human cargo -- the foul smells aboard the slave ship that brought him from West Africa to the New World in the 18th century, the anguished cries of women, the despair of those headed to a life of bondage.

The best-selling autobiography he later published is now a key text for scholars studying slavery and its roots in Africa, one of the few first-person accounts by a slave of the brutal cross-Atlantic trip known as the Middle Passage.

But part of Equiano's tale may be more fiction than fact.

A forthcoming biography of Equiano by English professor Vincent Carretta of the University of Maryland, College Park, contends that Equiano was actually born in South Carolina and could never have made the trip he describes. Carretta uses baptismal and naval records he unearthed to prove his point.

By challenging the authenticity of a major voice in the history of African slavery and one of the most widely taught slave narratives, Carretta's work, titled "Equiano, The African: Biography of a Self-Made Man," has stirred a furor among some historians and literary scholars.

"I think devastating is not underestimating some people's reaction to this notion," said Philip Morgan, a Princeton University history professor who has written about 18th-century slavery.

Carretta's book, published by University of Georgia Press, will be released Oct. 24...................

[ChildOfThe60s]

This is interesting. I hope this guy is prepared for his upcoming lynching.

[edcoil]

History tells us the Zulu's were the most powerful tribe in Africa and attacked, killed and made slaves of all the land they took and the tribes they took it from.

Along came Capt Van Dorf, a dutch sea captian trading European goods around the Cape and the Zulu's traded their slaves for those goods.

The slaves were then traded for goods in the west.

The Zulus made them slaves and no Zulu was ever a slave.

[camle]

didn't they find out that haley's "roots" was fake as well?

[thulldud]

"Ah, the smell of Pottsylvania! They must be burning books in the town square again!"

[wbill]

"It may lessen the claims to historical veracity," he (one of the authors critics) said. "But it does not lessen its persuasive power."

In other words, lies are a whole lot more interesting that the truth, particularly when they support your own opinion.

[Terabitten]

A forthcoming biography of Equiano by English professor Vincent Carretta of the University of Maryland, College Park, contends that Equiano was actually born in South Carolina and could never have made the trip he describes. Carretta uses baptismal and naval records he unearthed to prove his point.

It won't matter. The libs will just say that the story was fake, but accurate.

[correctthought]

Fake, but true

[Red Badger]

Well, before you know it, Silent Spring will be proven to be a fake...........

[NavySEAL F-16]

"It may lessen the claims to historical veracity," he (one of the authors critics) said. "But it does not lessen its persuasive power."

The Dan Rather excuse: Fake, but accurate!

[Red Badger]

http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/

[auboy]

It depends on what the meaning of born is.

[Red Badger]

I thought Zulus were from South Afrika, and most slaves were from West Afrika. The Muslim Arab slave traders were responsible for Western slavery............

[massgopguy]

Gold Coast slave ship bound for Cotton Fields
Sold'em in a market down in New Orleans
Scarred old slaver know he's doing alright
Hear him whip the women just around midnight

Pretty accurate.

[Terabitten]

"It may lessen the claims to historical veracity," he (one of the authors critics) said. "But it does not lessen its persuasive power."

As long as the book gets moved to the "Fiction" shelf, I really don't care.

The Grapes of Wrath was a powerfully persuasive book as well - but Tom Joad never existed.

[Salvey]

Fake, but true

Reminiscent of Anita Hill.

[sine_nomine]

He had to settle a huge lawsuit because part of his book was verbatim from another novel. In college students fail for doing that.

But professors like Ward Churchill do it all the time.

[twigs]

"I think devastating is not underestimating some people's reaction to this notion," said Philip Morgan, a Princeton University history professor who has written about 18th-century slavery.

So history is supposed to be about people's reaction to it rather than the facts themselves? This right here sums up a lot of what is going wrong about the study and recording of history these days.

I find it very interesting that this is coming out of UMd. An acquaintance of mine went there for her master's degree in secondary school counseling several years ago. Between the time she chose that program in the spring and the time she started classes in the fall, another head of the program was hired. He was an African-American who decided to use his department to right all educational wrongs toward fellow AAs. Some students dropped out because the program was not what they came there for. And they were out-and-out told that black students would have immediate access to the head and other students would have to wait their turn. This man must not like what his fellow teachers are producing.

[twigs]

Do you know what novel that was?

[RadioAstronomer]

If true, glad it's in the open.

[camle]

in wonder when black people are finally going to get mad at these charlatans who present fraud as fact, and the left eats it up.

the end result is to tie blacks to slavery so they have no hope of bettering themselves. that makes them dependent upon the largess of whitey - i.e. the Democrat party.