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Olaudah Equiano
A Slave on Three Continents
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Olaudah Equiano
=
•1745- 1=
797
=
•Kidnapp=
ed
=
•Sold in=
to
slavery
•Bought
his own freedom
=
•Moved to
England
=
![](3D"slide0002_image005.jpg")
Childhood
•Born in Ibo (Present day
Nigeria)
•Olaudah =3D “fortunate=
221;
in Ibo
•Son of a village chief
![](3D"slide0004_image007.jpg")
Enslaved in Africa
<=
span
class=3DHBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-9.7%'>•Kidnapped=
at age
11
•Sold
to various African ‘masters’
<=
span
class=3DHBB style=3D'position:absolute;left:-10.15%'>•Bought =
by a
widow
![](3D"slide0003_image009.jpg")
The European Slave Trade
![](3D"slide0006_image011.jpg")
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Olaudah Equiano,
later to be known as (Gustavus Vassa) was born in =
what
is Today Nigeria, kidnapped from his African village =
at
the age of eleven, and sold to a Virginia planter. He was later bought by a British naval Officer, Captain Pascal, as a present for his cousins in London. Equiano bought his freedom after ten years of enslavement throughout the North =
American continent, where he assisted his merchant slave master and worked as a seaman.
At the a=
ge
of forty four he wrote and published his autobiography,
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaud= ah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Written by Himself, which he registered at Stationer's Hall, London= , in 1789. More than two centuries later, this work is recognis= ed not only as one of the first works Published in England by an African. Equiano recalls his childhood in Essaka, where he was adorned in the tradition of the "greatest warriors." He is unique in his recollection of traditional African life before the advent of the European slave trade. Equiano was extremely well travelled for his time.= He not only traveled throughout the Americas, Turkey and the Mediterranean; but also participated in major naval battl= es during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), as well= as in the search for a Northwest passage led by the Philips expedition of 1772-1773. Equiano also rec= ords his central role, along with Granville Sharpe, in the British Abolitionist Movement. As a major voice in this movement, Equiano petitioned the Queen of England in 1788. He was appointed commissary of provisions and stores <= span style=3D'font-family:Verdana;mso-ascii-font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-f= amily: Arial'>to the expedition to resettle London's poor Blacks in Sierra Leone, a British colony on the west coast of Africa.
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaud= ah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Written by Himself, which he registered at Stationer's Hall, London= , in 1789. More than two centuries later, this work is recognis= ed not only as one of the first works Published in England by an African. Equiano recalls his childhood in Essaka, where he was adorned in the tradition of the "greatest warriors." He is unique in his recollection of traditional African life before the advent of the European slave trade. Equiano was extremely well travelled for his time.= He not only traveled throughout the Americas, Turkey and the Mediterranean; but also participated in major naval battl= es during the French and Indian War (Seven Years' War), as well= as in the search for a Northwest passage led by the Philips expedition of 1772-1773. Equiano also rec= ords his central role, along with Granville Sharpe, in the British Abolitionist Movement. As a major voice in this movement, Equiano petitioned the Queen of England in 1788. He was appointed commissary of provisions and stores <= span style=3D'font-family:Verdana;mso-ascii-font-family:Verdana;mso-bidi-font-f= amily: Arial'>to the expedition to resettle London's poor Blacks in Sierra Leone, a British colony on the west coast of Africa.
Olaudah Equiano was born into a we=
althy
West African family in 1745. His family was Ibo. They lived far from the s=
ea,
in an area now part of Nigeria.
Olaudah Equiano's father was a village
chief. He had seven children and many slaves, so Equiano grew up in a slave
society. But it was a different kind of slavery, as Equiano noted in his
autobiography:
With us the slaves do no more work than other members =
of
the community, than even their master; their food, clothing and lodging we=
re
nearly the same as ours, except that they were not permitted to eat with t=
hose
who were free-born; and there was scarcely any other difference between th=
em
than a superior degree of importance, which the head of a family possesses.
When he was el=
even,
Equiano was captured by African slave traders:
One day, when all our people were gone out to their works as usual, and on=
ly I
and my dear sister were left to mind the house, two men and a woman got ov=
er our
walls, and in a moment seized us both, and, without giving us time to cry =
out,
or make resistance, they stopped our mouths, and ran off with us into the =
nearest
wood. Here they tied our hands, and continued to carry us. The slave traders separated Equiano=
from
his sister and sold him several times, from one African master to another. Equiano's first owner treated
him well. But he was determined
to escape. "I was strengthened by the mortifying
circumstance of not
daring to eat with the free-born children."
He was soon sold again, a=
nd
then again, when a wealthy widow purchased him. With her family, Equiano discovered how slavery
differed from one African
society to another:
The next day I was washed and perfumed, and
when meal-time came, I was led into the presence of my mistress and ate and
drank before her with her son. This filled me with astonishment, and I cou=
ld
scarcely avoid expressing my surprise that the young gentleman should suff=
er
me, who was bound, to eat with him who was free. Indeed, everything here m=
ade
me forget that I was a slave.
Equiano
soon began to think the family would adopt him. His contentment was shattered early one morni=
ng
when he was awoken and taken away yet again. Eventually he found himself on the Africa's Atlantic co=
ast
for the first time in his
life. There he saw a slave ship anchored offshore.
But he had no idea what l=
ay
ahead. No Africans had ever returned from the Americas to tell of their fate.
' + ENDSHOW_MESG + '
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