Equiano

After reviewing the Brychan Carey website and reading Equiano’s Interesting Narrative, I am inclined to believe Equiano’s claim to have been born in Africa, although I agree with Carey’s “bottom line” statement in which he reminds us that “we just don’t know.”  

The early chapters of the Interesting Narrative provide a full and rich description of Equiano’s homeland, a place that he probably had some memory of, although since he was kidnapped when he was somewhere between seven and eleven years old,

 his memories would have been vague and garbled.  Equiano’s use of other accounts of the middle passage and of African life and culture and his occasional mistakes in describing his childhood are evidence of the overall veracity of his story.  If Equiano used contemporary sources to fabricate his tale, he would have made sure to be completely accurate and not to have made errors like his confusion between the kinds of perfume used by the Igbo on page 47, and his confusion of the kinds of local priests and wise men noted by Allison on page 53.  

There are, of course, some instances of poetic license which Equiano used to strengthen his argument.  On page 54, Equiano describes the similarities between “the manners and customs of my countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of Promise...”  This analogy prepares the thesis that, as Dr. Barnes mentioned in the 6th lecture, Equiano and his people were Old Testament people, good but pre-Christian and not “the spawn of Satan” as slavers claimed to justify their assault on humanity.  Another example of this is in the beginning of Volume II when Equiano describes his various interactions with religious meetings on the mainland of North America.  He describes his experience at the Quaker meeting in Philadelphia and describes the meeting featuring the Rev. Mr. George Whitfield, who, as Allison points out was not in Philadelphia when Equiano encountered him, but rather in Georgia.  Again, this lapse in strict chronological reporting does not detract from Equiano’s condemnation of slavery, but instead serves to make the story flow more smoothly, keeping the reader engaged and increasing the power of the document.

As to the documentary evidence at St Margaret’s Church and the Royal Navy muster roll from the 1773 Arctic expedition, it is not surprising that Equiano as a young man would have had been confused.  Considering that Equiano was a child when he was baptized he may not have had sufficient command of the English language to realize that the question “where are you from” meant “in what place were you born” and not “from which place have you recently arrived.”  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.  When Equiano wrote his story down, he was framing an argument against slavery, an argument that was, at the time, controversial.  He would have known therefore that people would check his story and search for ways to discredit him, indeed anonymous notes were published in the London papers at the time, and Equiano successfully refuted their claims. 

Finally, Equiano had become a sort of born again Christian after the death of his friend John Annis.  This process is described in Volume II, Chapter X of the Narrative and involves the usual crisis of conscience, feelings of hopelessness, and spiritual visions.  Often, people who believe that they have had these sort of “road to Damascus” moments occasionally try to practice the nominal Christian exhortation for honesty, at least until they seek the Republican presidential nomination.

¹ Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, ed. Robert J. Allison, Second ed. (Boston: Bedford / St. Martin's, 2007), pg. #25.

² Ibid. pg #54.

Photos from the Equiano Exhibit at the Birmingham Museum

Stopped at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery today (http://www.bmag.org.uk/) here are some photos that may be relevant to next week's unit.  There is a permanent exhibit on Equiano, it is just one room, but there are some interesting objects including a replica of the suit he bought to celebrate his freedom, a Wedgwood medal, a sugar cone, and an inexplicable statue of a polar bear.

The entrance to the exhibit.

The explanation.

A globe, a writing quill, a polar bear, a photo of the book, and a glass tumbler.

Leg irons, sugar nippers, tobacco, and a cone of sugar.

Replica suit. 

Wedgwood medal, 2007 postcard, conch shell, 1789 advert for the book.

Anti-Slavery Medal.

Postcard from 2007 exhibit.

Columbus

 I apologise for the spelling and the formatting in this blog post.  My computer seems to know where I am and has adjusted the spelling accordingly, I hope someday to outsmart this feature, but that day is not today.  Also, the transition from "pages" to "blogger" seems to have mangled my formatting.

Nathaniel McCain

     Because Symcox and Sullivan’s introduction emphasises that Columbus’ first voyage was undertaken mainly as “a commercial enterprise” and that “building an empire and spreading the Gospel would come later,1” and because the first documents either establish Columbus’ Genoese roots and are not directly connected to the voyages, or were written well after the first voyage with the benefit of hindsight, I am also including in this blog entry documents ten and eleven which detail the reasons for the first voyage and the formal agreements made between Ferdinand and Isabella and Columbus.

     Columbus probably planned his voyages with a religious justification in mind, the

Spanish Monarchs had united Spain, instigated the Reconquista to remove the Muslim rulers from Iberia, and began pogroms aimed at removing or converting the large and influential Jewish population. After the Reconquista was completed with the capture of Grenada in 1492, the Spanish crown needed a new outlet for their martial pursuits, “colonisation of the Americas can be seen both as an extension of the Reconquista and as part of the imperial state building initiated by the dynastic union of the two crowns.2”

     The impetus of Columbus’ trip west was commerce and exploration, the religious

justification of the enslavement and genocide of the Indians under the encomienda system came later. Meanwhile the Spanish crown had enlisted the aid of the Pope, Rodrigo Borgia or Alexander VI, in their race with Portugal to claim the New World and, in exchange, brought the previously latent religious impulse to the surface.3

     Document 10, the Santa Fe Capitulations details the reward that Columbus is to receive while Document 11 the Granada Capitulations officially grants the rewards explained in the previous document. In these two documents, we see that because Columbus offered his “command and expertise” and because the nature of maritime exploration means “placing yourself in danger for our [the Spanish Monarchs] service,” in order to “discover and acquire certain islands and mainland in the Ocean Sea4” he deserves a reward. The Crown agreed to grant Columbus and his heirs the titles of Admiral of the Ocean Sea and viceroy and governor general of all those islands and any mainland and islands that he may discover and acquire in the seas.”5 Along with the titles, Columbus is given the right to one-tenth of all treasure found, jurisdiction over any lawsuits that may arise from his explorations, and the right to invest a one-eighth share in outfitting trade ventures and to receive a one-eighth share in the profit. The only mention of religion in either of the documents authorising Columbus’ first voyage is the usual proclamation that Jesus knows that it is the year 1492.

     The documents written later, by Oviedo, De Las Casas, and even Columbus himself place much more emphasis on the religious components of the conquest of the Americas, maybe they were searching for forgiveness for the enslavement and genocide of the New World, maybe they understood, like their contemporary that religion was a wonderful tool for keeping people docile and fearful. 

“If our religion claims of us fortitude of soul, it is more to enable us to suffer than to achieve great deeds.  These principles seem to me to have made men feeble, and caused them to become an easy prey to evil-minded men, who can control them more securely, seeing that the great body of men, for the sake of gaining paradise, are more disposed to endure injuries than to avenge them.”

Niccoló Machiavelli, The Discourses. 1517.6

1 Geoffrey Symcox and Blair Sullivan, Christopher Columbus and the Enterprise of the Indies: A Brief

History with Documents (Boston, MA: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005), pg. #14.

2 Ibid, pg. #11.

3 Ibid, pg#19.

4 Ibid, pg#63.

5 Ibid, pg#61.

6 "Machiavelli - Quotes Justify the Man," Latest Articles, accessed January 16, 2012, http://

www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/670893/posts.

Introduction

Hello everyone, 


I am Nathaniel McCain, I live near Sasabe, Arizona on a cattle ranch that controls and grazes about 100 square miles, our south fence line is the famous border fence, which is an impressive four strands of barb wire that won't even keep a cow on one side or the other, let alone a person looking for a better life or a narco trafficker.  I have worked mostly in the dude ranching, outfitting, horse trading and colt starting business for the last fifteen years but am working on a career change, I just don't bounce like I did when I was eighteen.  


I went to college in Walla Walla, Washington right after I graduated from high school, but it didn't really take.  Like Edward Abbey's Henry Lightcap, "I was a philosophy major (well second lieutenant anyway)."   I have long been an amateur history student, I read constantly and prefer well written non-fiction.  


I started taking online courses at ASU in the spring of 2011, so far I have taken Arizona History, Europe in World History since 1789, History of the Modern Middle East, Dr. Barnes' Witchcraft and Heresy in Europe, Latin American History, and the History of Modern Southeast Asia.  This semester I am, clearly, taking HST 300, as well as China, Japan and East Asia in World History, Immigration and Ethnicity in the United States, and a Political Science class on world politics.  


As I study history, I am fascinated by the way that patterns repeat over time and in different locations.  As an example, last semester I had Latin American History, History of the Modern Middle East, and the History of Modern Southeast Asia.  All three areas were colonized by the European powers, fought for independence, and suffered through corruption and various dictatorships or other repressive governments.  Some have eventually found a path to freedom and rule of law, some are on the verge of finding that path, and some are still searching.  I think that understanding the roots of these kinds of patterns could be a step toward improving the world as it is today, although I could be totally wrong and it may turn out that there is no hope.


My girlfriend is English and lives in Birmingham, England, so I travel to the UK a couple of times a year, I will be there for the second half of January this year.  There is of course lots of history around the UK, I prefer the Victorians, there seems to have been something in the culture of the time that produced wonderfully audacious people that did impossible things without ever doubting their eventual success.  My current favorites are Isambard Kingdom Brunel the great engineer and Sir James Brooke the "White Raja of Sarawak."