This website was constructed as a class project in order to convey 18th Century British views on Africa. In this section you will find information on: Olaudah Equiano, Hannah More, Mungo Park, Hottentots, Oroonoko and the slave trade. We chose to concentrate on information that we gathered surrounding our required class readings, and the areas of the African continent that these readings referred to. We found in these readings British views of Africa and it's culture. We found that most of the works written in the 18th century about Africa contained numerous biases. In this website we explore the perspectives the British in the 18th century had of various groups of Africans.
Our information was collected from various sources including travel narratives, historical accounts, and firsthand narratives. During the 18th century, travel literature gained popularity as new cultures were being explored. These travel narratives transmitted ideas, information, and biases about other cultures to the mass of British citizens who were not able to travel to distant lands. Much of the travel literature used in our site contains the biases and ethnocentric views that Europeans often held about cultures very different from their own, such as those found in the various areas and tribes of Africa. Historical accounts were also consulted, giving background information on the regions and peoples of the areas that we focused on. Firsthand narratives, such as the one by Olaudah Equiano, provided information about Africa from a different perspective, discarding British ethnocentrism, and including a personal experience. Apart from these sources, much of our site content includes 18th century British Literature that conveyed the British view of Africa and the people living within it.
These pages were created as part of a class project by Jamie Pena (Equiano, slave trade, slavery images, Oroonoko), Emily Holden (Great Chain, Hottentots, Park), and Peggy Kaplin (More).