A (Re)Construction of Self in Slavery, Freedom and Asymmetrical Dependency: The 1837 Autobiography of Samuel Crowther

Several studies have been conducted on the life and writings of Samuel Crowther, Africa’s first Anglican Bishop; however, a detailed examination into his epistolary autobiography regarding his enslavement and freedom remains to be accomplished. By examining Crowther’s autobiography, this article applies questions pertaining to life writing to shed light on how Crowther understood his experiences of slavery, how ideas of freedom were expressed in it and how other forms of dependency, after being rescued from the slave ship, were experienced. To interpret Crowther’s ideas, I conduct a close reading of his autobiography by adopting a method of reading along and against the grain. The article argues that the autobiography of Samuel Crowther reveals combined fragments of his former self before, during and after enslavement to deliberately (re)construct a self-image beyond slavery.