I
think that Equiano was born somewhere in the Carribbean or in South
Carolina. I say this because of the
baptism record bearing Equiano’s name as well as the Royal Navy muster that
both claim his birthplace was South Carolina[1]. Further flaws in the story of Equiano come in
the form of incorrect dates. As Carey
points out, Equiano is usually very accurate with information about his past,
so it is suspicious that he would have flubbed the dates of such a big event
like going from America to England. As
Carey also points out in his chart, Equiano’s story about his life in Africa and
on the middle passage are very similar to accounts written by other authors of
that time[2]. Equiano wrote of his capture from his village
in Africa and about the stifling conditions on board the ship as they crossed
the Atlantic. I think his story was
probably a pretty common experience for most slaves, so its not hard to
conceive that he heard the story from someone else and made up a similar one
about his own life. I think the counter
position is incorrect in the Carey table because there is a lack of fundamental
claims that would seem to point to Equiano’s story being true. The counter positions he most offers are just
reworded from the claims that provide evidence that Equiano was born in South
Carolina. Instead of the counter
arguments being assertive, they are more defensive.
Hi Josh,
ReplyDeleteJust responding to your blog post as required. I agree with you in that it seems more likely that Equiano was born in South Carolina than Africa. The reasoning behind his descriptive narrative (which I also agree could easily come from other slaves whom he was in contact with) would simply be that he would try to touch as many readers as possible on an emotional level in order to aid his cause, which was the abolition of the slave trade.
To play Devil's advocate, there is no definitive evidence one way or another. It would be equally plausible to assume that the inaccuracy of his past was largely due to his inability to communicate effectively in English, or possibly that his traumatic experiences left him confused about the actual dates of events. Besides, of the amount of people he referenced in his autobiography, it would be likely that someone would come forward during his lifetime to show that he was not telling the truth in his autobiography, especially someone who had an economic interest in keeping the slave trade alive and well.