*Nearer My Freedom by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge

Nearer My Freedom uses the actual text of an 18^th-century memoir to create a poetic account of an extraordinary life story.

*Nearer My Freedom: The Interesting Life of Olaudah Equiano by Himself by Monica Edinger and Lesley Younge. Zest Books, 2023, 195 pages plus appendices.

Reading Level: Middle Grades, ages 10-12

Recommended for: ages 12-up

A life of dramatic reversals . . .

Olaudah Equiano, also Gustavus Vasso, led an interesting life indeed. Born in Benin (now Nigeria) in the mid-18^th century, he was captured at age 11 by a rival African tribe, traded throughout Africa, and eventually herded aboard a slave ship bound for Barbados, a major slave-trading port. No one bought him there, and that was a blessing, for his life could have ended too early on a sugar plantation. Instead he was shipped to Virginia, where a British navy lieutenant took a liking to him and brought him along on a ship bound for England. “The white people used me kindly. I began to think they were not all the same.”

Olaudah became a sailor rather than a field worker, and by fortunate acquaintance he learned to read and write and acquire other valuable skills. Also experiences: saw action during the Seven Years’ War, traveled to Mediterranean ports, even accompanied a doctor/scientist on an expedition to the North Pole. He converted to Christianity as a teenager, but it seems to have been more of a formality until his thirties, when he experienced a new birth, and “longed to tell of the wonders of God’s love to me.”

Olaudah was able to purchase his freedom at age 21, but remained vulnerable to recapture and re-enslavement at any time. Eventually he settled in England, married, raised a family, and became a prominent voice for the abolitionist cause. His memoir, published in 1789, forms the source text for this volume, composed of “found verse.” This technique lifts phrases and sentences from the original text and arranges them in verse format to create a rhythm and flow, as well as emotional impact. It works well for the narrative, whose original 18^th-century prose might have bogged down contemporary readers.

. . . told in a unique and appropriate style

The historical sensibility comes through in Olaudah’s born-again experience his zeal for spreading the gospel, and his ambivalent actions regarding slavery. As a victim, he fully understood its horrors, but as a practical man he sometimes participated in the system as a plantation overseer and sailor on slave-trading ships. Only later, after settling in England, did he become an outspoken critic: “Pray, reader,/ is not the slave trade entirely a war/ with the heart of man?”

A brief narrative of an action-packed life is certain to omit details of character and event that would make the story even more engrossing. But as an honest account of a historical figure, Nearer My Freedom is both enlightening and instructive: “After all, what makes any event important,/ unless by its observation we become/ wiser and better?”

Overall Rating: 4.5

• Worldview/moral value: 5
• Artistic/literary value: 4.25

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Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Review: Nikki Grimes’ verse memoir, Ordinary Hazards, is both searing and inspiring.
• Resource: See our collection of resources for the little-known history of medieval Africa.

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