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...................

[English Nationalist]

AFAIK, the idea that American slaves came from South Africa is used by lib historians so they can blame the Mfecane on white slavers.

[Sthitch]

You are almost correct. The Zulus actually did not exist as anything other than a small southern African clan until the early 1800's. They gained their strength by changing the way wars were fought in that part of the world. They generally did not take many slaves because they were too busy killing their enemies. They were a very vicious lot. This also brings a lie to the claim by Oprah that she was a decedent of the Zulu's, something that is so laughable on its face as to not even warrant a response (ignorant crack-head). The vast majority of the slaves that came west were from the center of the continent, and specifically from the western side of that portion of Africa. The majority of the slaves taken in this part of Africa were placed into bondage by rival tribes. The Arabs were busy doing the same thing, but in Eastern Africa. More slaves died on the horrific eastern routes to the Ottoman Empire and Arabia than were sent to the west.
I am happy to see that their is still room for critical thought at my alma matter. It was sure lacking when I went there.

[twigs]

I'm not sure that the Muslim traders were responsible for western slavery, at least not all of it. They were certainly actively trading in a lot of Africa; I'm just not sure about the west coast. IIRC, tribes who won local wars took the losers as slaves, kind of like war booty. It was expected and part of their culture. What some of them started to do was to sell their won slaves to white traders appearing on the coast. That was the departure from local tradition.

[mtbopfuyn]

While it is possible that part of Equiano's story is not true, Potkay says that doesn't reduce the text's value.

Rather-gate strikes again.

[Jacvin]

"The Muslim Arab slave traders were responsible for Western slavery............"

Not to defend Muslims in any way and I'm not an expert on the subject but I've always read the Dutch were the most infamous slave traders.

BTW, buyers are responsible for the creation of a market.
You cannot sell what people don't want to buy.

[Montaignes Cat]

Add this to the shelf of fictional autobiographies which serve political purposes:

Education of Little Tree by a pretend Native American.

The Marxist-fictional I, Rigoberta Menchu, which won a liar the Nobel Peace Prize.

Autobiography of "Palestinian" Edward Said.

[Red Badger]

True enough, but the first "slave trader" ship captain to cross the Atlantic had to wonder if his "cargo" was going to sell when he got to where he was going......

[Wuli]

All the slaves from West Africa were rounded up by and sold to the European slave traders by Africans, and by Muslims in Western Africa, some Arab some black. It was an ancient practice that long preceeded "the west", with roots and networks that for thounsands of years criss-crossed Africa and the Middle East, from the horn of Africa to the heart of Arabia. The Europeans were very late-comers to the nasty business. In fact, for about a thousand years many Europeans had been victims of slavery from the mafia-type kings that ruled the North Africa states on the coast of the Mediterranean - the barbary pirates.

[edcoil]

Agreed, the barabary pirates era was when whites were taken from Europe to be slaves to blacks.

You won't hear that much in history since each group picks a point in time that makes them victims and forgets the fullness of history.

[Jacvin]

Maybe he did some market research first.

[RadioAstronomer]

The famous "letter" Chief Seattle penned that is often quoted by the enviro whacks was actually written by a New York City Playwright.

[pabianice]

"His kind of scholarship, which invests excessive energy in pseudo-detective work, devotes too little time to critical analysis, disavows scholarly fellowship and indulges in vast publicity gamesmanship," Obiwu Iwuanyanwu, who spoke at the conference and teaches at Central State University in Ohio, wrote in an e-mail.

Translation: "It's more important to feel good about the myth than to challenge it with inconvenient facts." Typical Lefty acadamia.

[Wuli]

They weren't slaves to "blacks". Most of the people of North Africa by then were either Arabs (the conquerers) or descendents of ancient Mediterranean people (Egyptians, Carthoginians, Berbers etc.) who were conquered by the Arabs. Arabs, like Jews are Semites not black.

[MEGoody]

I do have to wonder - just how did a person taken from Africa and brought here to be a slave get enough education to write a book in the first place? That in itself is enough to make the book suspect.

[js1138]

It's fake but accurate.

[Tijeras_Slim]

Jason Blair is just Olaudah Equiano's slave name.

[popdonnelly]

Some academics fall in love with a book, and then when they're told their love is in vain, they vent their anger at the messenger.

[KosmicKitty]

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

Fake, but accurate??

[popdonnelly]

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

Sure. Like a good author, Mr. Equiano wanted to make it as persuasive as possible. But it changes the status of the book from a historical document to an interesting work of fiction.

Secondary sources, and particularly something like autobiographies, which the authors have reason to slant, have never been considered the most reliable historical sources.

[sharktrager]

That is true. Additionally, they did not treat slaves the way they were treated in the west. Not even close.