Equiano's "loud voice": witnessing the performance of The Interesting Narrative.(Olaudah Equiano)

Speech acts of all forms--praying, swearing, cursing, and so forth--burst unremitting from the page in black Atlantic writing of the eighteenth century. (1) For evidence of this claim, one may turn to virtually any page in the autobiographical narratives of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (1776), John Marrant (1785), and Olaudah Equiano (1789), but let me highlight a few instances. For Gronniosaw, exposure to excessive cursing is a crucial part of his entrance into white culture:

 
  ... the servants used to curse and swear surprisingly; which I learnt 
  faster than any thing, 'twas almost the first English I could speak. 
  If any of them affronted me, I was sure to call upon God to damn them 
  immediately; but I was broke of it all at once, occasioned by the 
  correction of an old black servant that liv'd in the family--One day I 
  had just clean'd the knives for dinner, when one of the maids took one 
  to cut bread and butter with; I was very angry with her, and called 
  upon God to damn her; when this old black man told me I must not say 
  so. I asked him why? He replied that there was a wicked man call'd the 
  Devil, that liv'd in hell, and would take all who said these words, 
  and put them in the fire, and burn them.--This terrified me greatly, 
  and I was entirely broke of swearing. (2) 

While the young Gronniosaw is frightened of the power that words command, Marrant learns that words in the form of prayers act like a valuable resource, saving him more than once:

 
  I was in the sea a third time about eight minutes, and several sharks 
  came round me; one of an enormous size, that could easily have taken 
  me into his mouth at once, passed and rubbed against my side. I then 
  cried more earnestly to the Lord than I had done for some time, and he 
  who heard Jonah's prayer, did not shut out mine, for I was thrown 
  aboard again; these were the means the Lord used to revive me, and I 
  began now to set out afresh. (3) 

Speech acts contain a vibrancy, a pseudo-magical quality, for these early black writers that appears to be far less potent among the white community. While words possess the ability to bring about felicitous actions for Gronniosaw and Marrant--summoning the Devil or enlisting God's aid--whites (and blacks who have long been indoctrinated into the white community) typically use words casually or even abusively; in speech-act parlance we might say that such casual usage is "parasitical," containing the external signs of a speech act but lacking the requisite locutionary force.