MAPACA

Mid-Atlantic Popular &
American Culture Association

“In short, the fair as well as black people immediately styled me by a new appellation, to me the most desirable in the world, which was freeman… Some of the sable females, who formerly stood aloof, now began to relax, and appear less coy, but my heart was still fixed on London.” -Olaudah Equiano

In this largely un-cited quotation from The Interesting Narrative, Olaudah Equiano defines his title as “freeman” against the racially-marked “sable females,” of the West Indies. By opposing their feminine presence to cosmopolitan “London,” Equiano binds the women within their geographical location while simultaneously claiming a mobility particular to his position as a man. Though women often occupy a peripheral role in the Narrative, they nonetheless profoundly influence Equiano’s development of a nascent, black masculinity both through and against imperial gender norms. In particular, Equiano employs a masculine form of mobility throughout the text to circulate through spaces defined by both African and Anglo femininities. Largely absent from criticism on Equiano, an examination of women in the Narrative expands upon criticism exploring the intersection of gender, race, and travel.

As crucial arbiters of imperial expansion, women provide Equiano with a middle ground through which to approach the politics of slavery and the male-dominated circulation of goods. Through his travels, Equiano deploys his text as a bridge between the women who serve at the sites of production and consumption in the West Indies and England. This paper will trace the circulation of forms of femininity within the triangular slave trade among Africa, the West Indies, and England. By inscribing forms of femininity within these three locations, Equiano occupies and vacates both sides of the colonizer/colonized divide. Appropriating the rhetorical authority of both, and the moral corruption of neither, Equiano engages feminine space in order to reform imperial practice.