Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano [1](c. 1745 – 31 March 1797),[2] also known as Gustavus Vassa, was one of the most prominent Africans involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807. Despite his enslavement as a young man, he purchasedhis freedom and worked as an author, merchant and explorer in South America, the Caribbean, the Arctic, the American colonies and the United Kingdom.

Early life

According to his own account, Olaudah Equiano was born in an Igbo village in what is now Nigeria, in 1745. At the age of eleven, he was kidnapped with a younger sister by kinsmen and forced into Domestic slavery in another nativevillage. The region had a chieftain hierarchy tied to slavery. Until then Equiano had never seen a European white man.[3][4] Equiano lived with five brothers and a sister, and was part of a large family before he and his sister were kidnapped. He was the youngest son with one younger sister.

Enslavement

When the parents were out, Equiano and his sister were set on by two men and a woman,African kinsmen, and sold to native slaveholders. After changing hands several times, Equiano found himself on the coast, in the hands of European slave traders. He was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to the West Indies, from where he and a few others were soon transferred to the British colony of Virginia.
Soon after arrival, he was bought by Michael Pascal, alieutenant in the Royal Navy. He decided to rename him to a more understandable name, a Latinised form of the name Gustavus Vassa, a Swedish noble who had become Gustav I of Sweden, king in the 16th century.[citation needed] Renaming slaves was common practice among slaveholders when they purchased them. At this point, Equiano had already been named Michael on the slave ship that brought him to theAmericas and Jacob by his first owner. This time Equiano refused and told his new owner that he would prefer to be called Jacob. His refusal, he says, "gained me many a cuff," that is, he was slapped or smacked, and eventually he submitted to the new name.
Equiano wrote in his narrative that slaves working inside the slaveholders' homes in Virginia were treated cruelly. They suffered punishmentssuch as an "iron muzzle" (scold's bridle), used around the mouths to keep house slaves quiet, leaving them barely able to speak or eat. Equiano conveyed the fear and amazement he experienced in his new environment. He thought that the eyes of portraits followed him wherever he went, and that a clock could tell his master about anything Equiano would do wrong. In fact, Equiano was so shocked bythis culture that he tried washing his face in an attempt to change its color.[5]




A disputed portrait of Equiano in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

As the slave of a naval captain, Equiano received training in seamanship and traveled extensively with his master. This was during the Seven Years War with France. Although he was Pascal's personal servant, Equiano was also expectedto assist in times of battle; his duty was to haul gunpowder to the gun decks. As one of Pascal's favorites, Equiano was sent to Ms. Pascal's sister in Britain, to attend school and learn to read.
At this time Equiano decided to convert to Christianity. His master allowed Equiano to be baptized in St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, in February 1759. Despite the special treatment, after theBritish won the war, Equiano did not receive a share of the prize money, as was awarded to the other sailors. Pascal had also promised his freedom but did not release him.[citation needed]
Later, Pascal sold Equiano to Captain James Doran of the Charming Sally at Gravesend, where he was transported to Montserrat, in the Caribbean Leeward Islands.
He was sold on to Robert King, a Quaker merchant from...