As the antislavery movement emerged and gained momentum in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, its participants quickly grasped the value and importance of African voices to the cause. If the public was to be persuaded that slavery was evil, it would first have to be convinced that African slaves were fully human and that they possessed the same essential qualities and characteristics as white Europeans. No one could perform this task more effectively than the African victims of slavery themselves. Thus, the essential goal of Olaudah Equiano’s account of his own life was not to expose his readers to the strange and exotic, but rather to reveal Equiano as an intelligent, feeling, Christian man. If readers could see Equiano as a person much like themselves, then their response to the evils of slavery would be more intense, more emotional, and much more likely to prompt them to action.

The awareness, however, of early antislavery activists of this dynamic presents challenges for contemporary readers. African authors and their white supporters collaborated in the publication of first-person accounts of slavery, and all participants were aware of the political implications of their work. We cannot, therefore, accept such accounts on face value as representative of African perspectives on New World slavery. Instead, we must place them in context, understanding that a variety of viewpoints and forces shaped the self-presentation of African authors, not least of which were the values, opinions, and beliefs of the eighteenth-century reading public. Keep this in mind as you read the African accounts of slavery included in this activity. How did the intended audience shape each author’s work?