Equiano was part of the abolitionist group the Sons of Africa, whose members were Africans living in Britain, and he was active as a leader of the anti-slave-trade movement in the 1780s. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.Īs a freedman in London, Equiano supported the British abolitionist movement. Enslaved as a child in Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa ( / ˈ v æ s ə/), was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the village of Essaka in present-day southern Nigeria. Equiano died on 31 March 1797.Olaudah Equiano ( / ə ˈ l aʊ d ə/ c. In 1792, Equiano married an Englishwoman, Susanna Cullen, and they had two daughters. It is one of the earliest books published by a black African writer.

He travelled widely promoting the book, which became immensely popular, helped the abolitionist cause, and made Equiano a wealthy man. In 1789 he published his autobiography, 'The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African'. He was a prominent member of the 'Sons of Africa', a group of 12 black men who campaigned for abolition. In 1786 in London, he became involved in the movement to abolish slavery. Equiano then spent much of the next 20 years travelling the world, including trips to Turkey and the Arctic. In only three years, he made enough money to buy his own freedom. While working as a deckhand, valet and barber for King, Equiano earned money by trading on the side. Pascal then sold Equiano to a ship captain in London, who took him to Montserrat, where he was sold to the prominent merchant Robert King.

Equiano travelled the oceans with Pascal for eight years, during which time he was baptised and learned to read and write. In Virginia he was sold to a Royal Navy officer, Lieutenant Michael Pascal, who renamed him 'Gustavus Vassa' after the 16th-century Swedish king. Doubt also stems from the fact that, in later life, he twice listed a birthplace in the Americas.Īpart from the uncertainty about his early years, everything Equiano describes in his extraordinary autobiography can be verified. In the absence of written records it is not certain whether Equiano's description of his early life is accurate. He describes how he was kidnapped with his sister at around the age of 11, sold by local slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to Barbados and then Virginia.

In his autobiography, Olaudah Equiano writes that he was born in the Eboe province, in the area that is now southern Nigeria. © Equiano was an African writer whose experiences as a slave prompted him to become involved in the British abolition movement.

The life of olaudah equiano