Olaudah Equiano: African Writer and Abolitionist

Olaudah Equiano
Equiano

Olaudah Equiano, known as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and an anti-slavery campaigner from the Eboe region of the Benin Kingdom. Enslaved as a child in Africa, slave traders took him to the Caribbean and sold him to a Royal Navy officer. The slave traders sold him twice more. However, he bought his freedom in 1766. As a freedman in London, Olaudah Equiano supported the British abolitionist movement. He was part of the Sons of Africa and was active among leaders of the anti-slave trade movement in the 1780s. The Sons of Africa is an abolitionist group comprising Africans living in Britain. Olaudah Equiano published his autobiography, which depicted slavery horrors. His autobiography is called ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.’

It went through more than seven editions in his lifetime and helped gain passage of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade. Olaudah Equiano married an English woman named Susannah Cullen in the late 18th century (1792), and they had 2 daughters. He passed on in 1797 in Westminster.

Early Life and Enslavement

According to his memoir, as stated earlier, Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka in the Benin Empire. In his works, Olaudah Equiano recounts an incident of an attempted children’s abduction in his Igbo village. When he was 11 years, he and his sister remained behind to look after their family premises, as was usual when adults went out of the house to work. Kidnappers kidnapped both of them and took them far away from their hometown, separated, and sold them to slave merchants. His attempt to escape was unsuccessful. After his masters or owners changed severally, Olaudah Equiano met with his sister, but they separated again. Several months after his abduction, he arrived at the coast, where he was on board a European slave vessel or slave ship. The slave transported him and 244 other African slaves across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados in the British West Indies. He and other slaves got sent on for sale in the Virginia Colony.

In Virginia, Michael Henry Pascal bought Olaudah Equiano. Henry Pascal is responsible for naming Olaudah Equiano Gustavus Vassa after the King of Sweden, Gustav Vasa, who started the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. Olaudah Equiano had already been renamed more than once. He was known as Michael while onboard the slave vessel that brought him to the New World and later Jacob by his 1st master.

Henry Pascal took Olaudah Equiano with him when he returned to England and accompanied him as a valet during the 7 Years War with France. Olaudah Equiano gives eyewitness reports of the Siege of Louisbourg, the Battle of Lagos, and Belle Ile’s Capture. Olaudah Equiano was to help or assist the ship’s crew in times of battle. His responsibility or duty was to haul gunpowder to the gun decks. Henry Pascal favored Olaudah Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain to attend school and learn to write and read.

Olaudah Equiano converted to Christianity and got baptized at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, on 9th February 1759. His godparents were Mary Guerin and her brother, Maynard, who were cousins of his owner Henry Pascal.  In December 1762, Henry Pascal sold Olaudah Equiano to Captain James Doran of the Charming Sally at Gravesend, from where he got transported back to the Caribbean to Montserrat in the Leeward Islands. There Robert King bought him. Robert King was an American Quaker trader or merchant from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean.

His Release and Freedom

Robert King set Olaudah Equiano to work on his shipping routes and in his stores. In 1765, when Olaudah Equiano was about twenty years old, Robert King promised that he could purchase his freedom for his purchase price of forty pounds. Robert King taught Equiano to read and write more fluently, guided him along the faith or religion path, and permitted Olaudah Equiano to engage in profitable trading for his account and his owner’s behalf. Olaudah Equiano sold glass tumblers and other goods between Georgia and the Caribbean Islands. Robert King allowed Olaudah Equiano to purchase his freedom, which he got in the mid-18th century (1766). The trader urged Olaudah Equiano to stay on as a business partner. However, Olaudah Equiano found it limiting and dangerous to remain in the British territories as a freedman. While loading a vessel in Georgia, kidnappers almost kidnapped him back to enslavement.

In 1768, Olaudah Equiano went to England. He continued to work at sea, traveling as a deckhand based in England. After five years, in 1773, on the Royal Navy vessel HMS Racehorse, he traveled to the Arctic to find a Northeast route to India. On that voyage, he worked with Dr. Charles Irving. After two years, Dr. Charles Irving recruited Olaudah Equiano for a Mosquito Coast project in Central America. Dr. Charles Irving and Olaudah Equiano had a strong working relationship and friendship for more than 10 years. Olaudah Equiano left the Mosquito Coast in the late 18th century (1776) and arrived at Plymouth on 7th January 1777.

Pioneer of the Abolitionist Cause

Olaudah Equiano settled in London, where in the late 18th century, he became involved in the abolitionist movement. In 1783 Olaudah Equiano told abolitionists like Granville Sharp about the slave trade. On 21st October 1785, he was one of the 8 delegates from Africans in America to present an Address of Thanks to the Quakers at a Grace Church street meeting. Abolitionists befriended and supported Olaudah Equiano. They encouraged him to write and publish his life story. Religious benefactors and philanthropic abolitionists supported him financially in this effort.

About his Marriage, Family, Last Days, and Will

As mentioned above, on 7th April 1792, Olaudah Equiano got engaged to Susannah Cullen, a local woman, in St. Andrew’s Church. The Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies holds the original marriage register having the entry for Vassa and Cullen. Olaudah Equiano included his marriage in every edition of his autobiography from 1792 onwards. The couple settled in the region and had 2 daughters. One was called Anna Maria, who died in 1797, and Joanna died in 1857. Equiano’s daughters got baptized at Soham Church.

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Susannah lost her life in February 1796 at 34, and Olaudah Equiano died a year after (31st March 1797).

Olaudah Equiano drew up his will on 28th May 1796. When he made this will, he resided at the Plaisterers’ Hall in Aldermanbury in London City. He shifted to John Street near Whitefield’s Tabernacle. At his demise, he was living in Paddington Street. Both American and British newspapers reported Olaudah Equiano’s death. Olaudah Equiano was buried at Whitefield’s Tabernacle on 6th April. In his daughters’ event, Olaudah Equiano’s will demise before reaching 21 years, bequeathed half his wealth to the Sierra Leone company for a learning institution in Sierra Leone and the other half to the London Missionary Society.

His Legacy and Representation in other Media

The Equiano Society came into existence in London in November 1996. Its primary objective is to publicize and celebrate Olaudah Equiano’s life and work. The Church of England honored Olaudah Equiano and is remembered in its Calendar of saints on 30th July, along with William Wilberforce and Thomas Clarkson, who worked for the abolition of the slave trade and slavery.

In 2007, the celebration year in Britain of the bicentenary of the slave trade abolition, Olaudah Equiano’s life, and achievements got included in the National Curriculum. In December 2012, the Daily Mail claimed that he would be dropped from the Curriculum. In January 2013, Operation Black Vote launched a petition to request Michael Gove to keep Olaudah Equiano in the National Curriculum.

Olaudah Equiano’s statue, which Edmund Waller School’s pupils made, got erected in Telegraph Hill Lower Park in 2008. Olaudah Equiano’s head is included in Martin Bond’s 1997 sculpture Wall of the Ancestors in Deptford. On 16th October 2017, Google Doodle honored Olaudah Equiano by celebrating the 272nd year since his birth.

Apart from these works, we see Equiano’s bigger legacy when a crater on mercury was named after him (‘Equiano’) in 1976. 2 years ago (2019), Google Cloud named a subsea cable running from Portugal through the West Coast of the African continent and ending in South Africa after Olaudah Equiano.

Under his representation in other media, people have produced several works about Olaudah Equiano since the 2007 bicentenary of Britain’s abolition of the slave trade. Some of these works include Youssou N’Dour’s portrayal of Olaudah Equiano in the film Amazing Grace. Dr. Robert Hume, a Kent historian, wrote a children’s book entitled ‘Equiano: The Slave with the Loud Voice.’

Jessica Oyelowo and David appeared as Olaudah Equiano and his wife in ‘Grace Unshackled-The Olaudah Equiano Story. Soweto Kinch’s 1st album, Conversations with the Unseen, has a track entitled ‘Equiano’s Tears.’

Apart from these representations, there were also several others. Olaudah Equiano is an important figure that shaped slavery during the period when slavery was rampant. He played a critical and significant role when he joined hands with other abolitionists who wanted to stop the slave trade.

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