He and a few other slaves were sent on for sale in the Colony of Virginia. He was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados in the British West Indies. Six or seven months after he had been kidnapped, he arrived at the coast where he was taken on board a European slave ship. After his owners changed several times, Equiano happened to meet with his sister but they were separated again. They were both kidnapped and taken far from their hometown, separated and sold to slave traders.
When he was around the age of eleven, he and his sister were left alone to look after their family premises, as was common when adults went out of the house to work. Įquiano recounted an incident of an attempted kidnapping of children in his Igbo village, which was foiled by adults. However, this was likely a geographical error and there was likely no connection between his home and Benin. He claimed his home was located within the Kingdom of Benin. Early life and enslavement Īccording to his memoir, Equiano was born around 1745 in the Igbo village of Essaka in present-day southern Nigeria. The Interesting Narrative gained renewed popularity among scholars in the late 20th century and remains an actively studied primary source.
His 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, helped secure passage of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade, and sold so well that nine editions were published during his lifetime. 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.
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