ISBN: Ostalo
Godina izdanja: 2004.
Jezik: Engleski
Autor: Strani

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or, Gustavus Vassa, The African
Written by Himself
Edited and with noters by Shelly Eversley
Introduction by Robert Reid - Pharr

The Modern Library, 2004.
Meki povez, 262 strane.
IZUZETNO RETKO IZDANJE!


The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, first published in 1789 in London,[1] is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), an African from what is now Nigeria who was enslaved in childhood and eventually bought his freedom and became an abolitionist in the United Kingdom.

The narrative is argued to represent a variety of styles, such as a slavery narrative, travel narrative, and spiritual narrative.[2] The book describes Equiano`s time spent in enslavement, and keeps track of his attempts at becoming an independent man through his study of the Bible, and his success in the end in gaining his own freedom and in business thereafter.
Main themes

Slavery in West Africa vs. slavery in the Americas
The African slave`s voyage from Africa (Igbo Land) to the Americas and England[3]
The cross-cultural and geopolitical journey from slavery to freedom and heathenism to Christianity.

Summary
Preface

Before Chapter 1, Equiano writes: `An invidious falsehood having appeared in the Oracle of the 25th, and the Star of the 27th of April 1792, with a view, to hurt my character, and to discredit and prevent the sale of my Narrative.`[4] Like many literary works written by black people during this time, Equiano`s work was discredited as a false presentation of his slavery experience. To combat these accusations, Equiano includes a set of letters written by white people who `knew me when I first arrived in England and could speak no language but that of Africa.`[4] In his article, `Preface to Blackness: Text and Pretext`[5] Henry Louis Gates Jr. discusses the use of prefaces by black authors to humanize their being, which in turn made their work credible. In this section of the book, Equiano includes this preface to avoid further discrediting.
Chapter 1

Equiano opens his Narrative with an explanation of his struggle to write a memoir. He is empathetic about hardships that memoir writers experience. He explains that they often have to defend themselves against those who question their work. He apologizes to his readers in advance for not having the most exciting story, but hopes it helps other slaves in his position. He states, `I am neither a saint, a hero, nor a tyrant.`[4] He begins his story with a description of his homeland and the district in which he was born. He was born in the Kingdom of Benin, a part of Guinea. He details his district, Eboe (now Nigeria), and the isolation of Essake, the small province of his birth in 1745.[6]

Equiano describes that Eboe (now known as Igboland) had well established rules and laws of governing. Their systems of marriage and law were strictly enforced. His father—a titled elder in the district—was in charge of punishing criminals and resolving conflicts within their society. Within the district, women were held to higher standards than men. Marriage was seen as extremely important. The bride`s family was responsible for providing gifts for the family of the husband, and the wife was `owned by her husband`.[7]

Dancing was a huge part of the culture within the kingdom. All dancing was separated into four divisions of groups of people, and they all represented key life events. The kingdom was made up of many musicians, singers, poets, dancers, and artists. The people of the kingdom lived a simple life. Nothing was luxurious. Clothes and homes were very plain and clean. The only type of luxuries in their eyes were perfumes and on occasions alcohol. Women were in charge of creating clothing for the men and women to wear. Agriculture was the primary occupation, because the kingdom sat on rich soil and facilitated abundant growth. Though slaves were present in the kingdom, only those who were prisoners of war or convicted criminals were traded in Eboe.

Hardships were brought about by an unusual number of locusts and constant arbitrary wars with other districts. If another district`s chief waged war and won, they would acquire all slaves belonging to their opponent. In the event of a loss, chiefs were put to death. Religion was extremely important in Equiano`s society. The people of Eboe believed in one `Creator`, who lived in the sun and was in charge of major occurrences: life, death, and war. They believed that those who died transmigrated into spirits, but their friends and family who did not transmigrate protected them from evil spirits. They also believed in circumcision. Equiano compared this practice of circumcision to that of the Jews.

Equiano also explains the customs of his people. Children were named after events or virtues. Olaudah meant fortune, but it also served as a symbol of command of speech and his demanding voice. Two of the core values of the Eboe religion were cleanliness and decency. Touching of women during their menstrual cycle and the touching of dead bodies were seen as unclean. As Equiano discusses his people, he explains the fear of poisonous plants and venomous snakes within the community. He describes an instance where a snake slithered through his legs without harming him. He considered himself extremely lucky.[8]

Equiano makes numerous references to the similarity between the Jews and his people. Like the Jews, not only did his people practice circumcision, but they also practiced sacrificing, burnt offerings, and purification. He explains how Abraham`s wife was African, and that the skin colour of Eboan Africans and modern Jews differs due to the climate. At the end of the first chapter, Equiano asserts that Africans were not inferior people; the Europeans considered them as such because they were ignorant of the European language, history, and customs. He explains it is important to remember the ancestors of the Europeans were once uncivilized barbarians. He states, `Understanding is not confined to feature or colour.`[4]
Chapter 2

Equiano explains how he and his sister were kidnapped and forced to travel with their captors for a time until the two children were separated. Equiano becomes the slave-companion to the children of a wealthy chieftain. He stays with them for about a month until he accidentally kills one of his master`s chickens and runs away. Equiano hides in the shrubbery and woods surrounding his master`s village, but after several days without food, steals away into his master`s kitchen to eat. Exhausted, Equiano falls asleep in the kitchen and is discovered by another slave who interceded with the master for Equiano. The master is forgiving and insists that Equiano shall not be harmed.

Soon after, Equiano is sold to a group of travelers. One day, his sister appears with her master at the house and they share a joyous reunion; however, she and her company leave, and Equiano never sees his sister again. Equiano is eventually sold to a wealthy widow and her young son. Equiano lives almost as an equal among them and is very happy until he is again taken away and forced to travel with `heathens` to the seacoast.[9]

Equiano is forced onto a slave ship and spends the next several weeks on the ship under terrible conditions. He points out the `closeness of the place, and the heat of the climate added to the number in the ship` suffocates them; some slaves even preferred to drown, and one was saved only to be flogged later, as he had chosen to die rather than accept slavery.[4] At last they reach the island of Barbados, where Equiano and all the other slaves are separated and sold. The author mentions the impact of their selling away, as `on the signal given, (as the beat of a drum), the buyers rush at once into the yard where they are confined, and make the choice of that parcel they like best. [...] The noise and clamor [...] serve not a little to increase the apprehension of the Terrified Africans.`[4]

Throughout the passage, Equiano refers to white people as cruel, greedy, and mean. He is very surprised by the way they relate to each other, as they are even cruel between them, not only to the slaves. However, as he meets more white people and learns about their culture he comes to the conclusion that the white men are not inherently evil but that institutional slavery has made them cruel and callous.
Chapter 3

Equiano is lonely at the new plantation and completes his work alone. One day, while in the kitchen, he is shocked at the sight of one of the women slaves wearing an iron muzzle. As he continues looking around the house he notices a watch on the wall and a painting. He is disconcerted by both of these objects because he fears they are spying for the Master. On the plantation, he is called `Jacob`, though earlier he had been called `Michael`. One day, a man called Michael Henry Pascal, comes to the Master`s house, wanting to purchase Equiano. He pays £30 to £40 for him and Equiano leaves to work on a ship. He prefers life at sea because his shipmates are nicer to him and he eats better than previously. He is again renamed, as `Gustavus Vassa`. Although he does not like the name, he does not mind it in order not be punished. On the ship he develops a friendship with a man named Richard Baker. Richard becomes a companion and interpreter for Equiano, who does not understand the language spoken by everyone else on board. He becomes very close to Richard and mourns him deeply when Richard leaves to his family in 1759.[1]
Chapter 4

It has now been two or three years since Equiano first came to England. He has spent the majority of his time at sea. He does not mind his work and, as he has spent a lot of time there, he almost considers himself an Englishman. He can speak English decently, and can understand everything said to him. He also starts to view the others on the ship as his superiors, aspiring to be like them instead of seeing them as barbaric and intimidating. Equiano goes to London with his Master and is sent to serve for the Guerins. He likes it there and they provide him with an education. He is baptized with the help of Miss Guerins. After a while, his Master is called back to sea, so Equiano must leave school to work for him. They go to Gibraltar, where he gets cheap fruits and tells the story of losing his sister. A person who lived in the area tells him that he saw his sister and consequently takes him to her, but the person is in fact mistaken. Equiano meets Daniel Queen while working for his Master, and Queen quickly becomes a big part of his life, teaching him about religion, education, and how to shave. Equiano views him almost like a father and tries to repay him with sugar or tobacco whenever he can afford it. In December, the ship leaves to go to London following rumours of peace and the end of the war. When they arrive in London, his Master gives him away to Captain Doran, even though he does not want to go.[1]
Chapter 5

In mid-May, Equiano is summoned by Captain Doran and told he had been sold to a new Master called Robert King. King had wanted to purchase him because he liked his character and his work ethic. Other people offer King up to one hundred guineas for Equiano. King is good to Equiano and says he will put him in school and fit him for a clerk. King feeds his slaves well, which he was sometimes criticized for. King`s philosophy is that the better a slave is fed; the harder they will work. King has Equiano perform gauging (the measurement of a boat) while on the ship. He also puts Equiano in charge of the Negro cargo on the ship. While working for King, Equiano sees clerks and other white men rape women, which makes him angry, because he can do nothing about it.[1]
Chapter 6

Chapter 6 opens with Equiano`s explanation that he has witnessed a lot of evil and unfair events as a slave. He recounts a specific event that happened in 1763. He and a companion were trying to sell limes and oranges that were in bags. Two white men came up to them and took the fruit away from them. They begged them for the bags back and explained that it was everything they owned, but the white men threatened to flog them if they continued begging. They walked away because they were scared, but after a while they went back to the house and asked for their belongings back again. The men gave them two of the three bags back. The bag that they kept was all of Equiano`s companion`s fruit, so Equiano shared one-third of his fruit. They went off to sell the fruit and ended up getting 37 bits for it, which surprised them. During this time, Equiano started working as a sailor and selling and trading items like gin and tumblers. When he was in the West Indies, he witnessed Joseph Clipson, a free mulatto man, being taken into slavery. Equiano notes that this happened a lot in the area, and consequently decides he cannot be free until he leaves the West Indies. He starts to save the money he earns to buy his freedom.[1]

Before they leave for a trip to Philadelphia, his captain hears a rumour that Equiano has plans to escape. The Master reminds Equiano how valuable he is, and that he will find him and get him back if he tries to run away. Equiano explains that he has no plans to escape, and that if he had wanted to run away, he would have done it by now, given all the freedom the Master and the captain give him. The captain confirms Equiano`s explanation and decides it was indeed only a rumour. Equiano tells the Master then that he is interested in buying his freedom eventually.[1]

When they get to Philadelphia, Equiano goes to sell what his Master gave him and talks to Mrs. Davis, a wise woman who reveals secrets and foretells events. She tells him he will not remain in slavery for long. The ship continues on to Georgia and, while they are there, Doctor Perkins beats Equiano and leaves him lying on the ground, unable to move. Police pick him up and put him in jail. After he does not return overnight, the captain discovers what has happened and gets him out of jail. He also has the best doctors treat him. He tries to sue Doctor Perkins, but a lawyer explains that there is not a case because Equiano is a black man. Equiano slowly recovers and gets back to work.[1]
Chapter 7

Equiano grows closer to purchasing his freedom with the money he has saved from selling items. His ship was supposed to go to Montserrat—where he thought he would get the last of the money he needed—but the crew receives an order to go to St. Eustatia and then Georgia. He sells more items and earns enough money to buy his freedom. He goes to the captain to consult with him about what to say to his Master. The captain tells him to come when he and the Master have breakfast. That day, he offers to purchase his own freedom for 40 pounds. With a little convincing from the captain, Equiano`s master agrees, and Equiano is granted complete freedom. In the succeeding months, the captain dies. Equiano writes, `had it pleased Providence, that he [the captain] had died about five months before, I verily believe I should not have obtained my freedom when I did.` The chapter ends with Equiano`s arrival in Montserrat.[1]
Chapter 8

Equiano expresses his desires to return to England. He has recurring dreams of the ship crashing, and on the third night of his travels, his fears come true as the ship collides with a rock. Although Equiano is terrified and feels sure he is going to die, he is able to collect himself and prevent the ship from crashing. This traumatic event also causes him to reflect on his own morals and his relationship with God. Eventually, the crew end up on an island in the Bahamas, and are able to find another ship heading to New Providence. Once they reach their destination, Equiano goes to work on another ship headed for Georgia. After a few interesting interactions in Georgia, he finds a spot on a ship destined for Martinique. Before leaving for the island, Equiano comes across a black woman who needed a church burial service for her child. No white person will help her, so Equiano agrees to perform the role of a parson before he departs for his journey.[1]
Chapter 9

Chapter 9 describes Equiano`s many journeys, including one to the North Pole with the scientist Doctor Irving, the inventor of a way to distil fresh drinking water. `The author arrives at Martinico--Meets with new difficulties--Gets to Montserrat, where he takes leave of his old master, and sails for England--Meets Capt. ascal--Learns the French horn--Hires himself with Doctor rving, where he learns to freshen sea water--Leaves the doctor, and goes a voyage to Turkey and Portugal; and afterwards goes a voyage to Grenada, and another to amaica--Returns to the Doctor, and they embark together on a voyage to the North Pole, with the Hon. Capt. Phipps--Some account of that voyage, and the dangers the author was in--He returns to England.`
Chapter 10

`The author leaves Doctor Irving and engages on board a Turkey ship—Account of a black man`s being kidnapped on board and sent to the West Indies, and the author`s fruitless endeavours to procure his freedom—Some account of the manner of the author`s conversion to the faith of Jesus Christ.` Throughout this chapter, Equiano becomes greatly concerned with salvation and guaranteeing his place in heaven. After learning about predestination from multiple figures, Equiano worries he will never be able to fully repent and reach heaven. He contemplates suicide but does not wish to upset God by committing what was generally seen as a sin.[1]
Chapter 11

`The author embarks on board a ship bound for Cadiz—Is near being shipwrecked—Goes to Malaga—Remarkable fine cathedral there—The author disputes with a popish priest—Picking up eleven miserable men at sea in returning to England—Engages again with Doctor Irving to accompany him to Jamaica and the Mosquito Shore—Meets with an Indian prince on board—The author attempts to instruct him in the truths of the Gospel—Frustrated by the bad example of some in the ship—They arrive on the Mosquito Shore with some slaves they purchased at Jamaica, and begin to cultivate a plantation—Some account of the manners and customs of the Mosquito Indians—Successful device of the author`s to quell a riot among them—Curious entertainment given by them to Doctor Irving and the author, who leaves the shore and goes for Jamaica—Is barbarously treated by a man with whom he engaged for his passage—Escapes and goes to the Mosquito admiral, who treats him kindly—He gets another vessel and goes on board—Instances of bad treatment—Meets Doctor Irving—Gets to Jamaica—Is cheated by his captain—Leaves the Doctor and goes for England.`[1]
Chapter 12

`Different transactions of the author`s life till the present time—His application to the late Bishop of London to be appointed a missionary to Africa—Some account of his share in the conduct of the late expedition to Sierra Leona—Petition to the Queen—Conclusion.`[1]
Controversy about origins

Originally published in 1789, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African, played a large role in `[altering] public opinion` towards the debate over abolition in Britain. Equiano was viewed as `an authority` in relation to the slave trade. His claims of being born in Eboe (now southern Nigeria) and being captured and traded as a child gave him definite credibility. However, several people questioned his credibility in the 1790s in order to challenge rising abolitionist sentiments. There were rumours that Equiano was actually born in the West Indies, but these claims were thrown away for being `politically motivated.`[10]

Paul Edwards edited The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African, in 1967 and sparked further debate about the validity of the story`s origins.

In 1999, Vincent Carretta published findings of two records that questioned Equiano`s birthplace in Africa.[11] Carretta found Equiano`s baptismal record dated 9 February 1759 from St Margaret`s Church in Westminster, London, where Equiano was recorded as `Gustavus Vassa, a Black born in Carolina, 12 years old`, and a naval muster roll from 1773 where Equiano likewise identified his birthplace as `South Carolina`.[12] These documents were enough for Carretta to believe that Equiano`s claims about his early life were `probably fictitious`.[13] Aside from contradicting Equiano`s account directly, these records suggested that, even if Equiano were born in Africa, he would have been at most seven or eight years old when he was sold into slavery (given that he must have been purchased by Michael Henry Pascal in Virginia no later than December 1754). This made Carretta doubt the reliability of Equiano`s first-hand descriptions of his home `country` and `countrymen`.[14] Carretta believes his findings indicate Equiano had borrowed his account of Africa from others, and said the timing of the publication was not an accident.[15] Carretta noted `the revelation that Gustavus Vassa was a native-born Igbo originally named Olaudah Equiano appears to have evolved during 1788 in response to the needs of the abolitionist movement.`[16]

Carretta explains that Equiano presumably knew what parts of his story could be corroborated by others, and, more importantly if he was combining fiction with fact, what parts could not easily be contradicted.[15]

`Equiano`s fellow abolitionists were calling for precisely the kind of account of Africa and the Middle Passage that he supplied. Because only a native African would have experienced the Middle Passage, the abolitionist movement needed an African, not an African-American, voice. Equiano`s autobiography corroborated and even explicitly drew upon earlier reports of Africa and the Middle Passage by some white observers, and challenged those of others.`

Paul E. Lovejoy disputes Carretta`s claim that Vassa was born in South Carolina because of Vassa`s knowledge of the Igbo society. Lovejoy refers to Equiano as Vassa because he never used his African name until he wrote his narrative.[17] Lovejoy believes Vassa`s description of his country and his people is sufficient confirmation that he was born where he said he was, and based on when boys received the ichi scarification, that he was about 11 when he was kidnapped, as he claims, which suggests a birth date of about 1742, not 1745 or 1747.[18] Lovejoy`s thoughts on the baptismal record are that Vassa couldn`t have made up his origins because he would have been too young. Lovejoy goes on to say:[18]

`If Carretta is correct about Vassa`s age at the time of baptism, accepting the documentary evidence, then he was too young to have created a complex fraud about origins. The fraud must have been perpetrated later, but when? Certainly the baptismal record cannot be used as proof that he committed fraud, only that his godparents might have.`

Lovejoy also believes Equiano`s godparents, the Guerins and Pascals, wanted the public to think that Vassa was a creole instead of being a fully Black man born in Africa. He claims that this was because the perceived higher status of Creoles in West Indian society and Equiano`s mastery of English.[19]

In 2007, Carretta wrote a response to Lovejoy`s claims about Equiano`s Godparents saying: `Lovejoy can offer no evidence for such a desire or perception.`[15] Carretta went on to say: `Equiano`s age on the 1759 baptismal record to be off by a year or two before puberty is plausible. But to have it off by five years, as Lovejoy contends, would place Equiano well into puberty at the age of 17, when he would have been far more likely to have had a say in, and later remembered, what was recorded. And his godparents and witnesses should have noticed the difference between a child and an adolescent.`[20]
Reception
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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano was one of the first widely-read slave narratives. Nine editions were printed during the author`s lifetime, and it was translated into Dutch and German.[21] The structure and rhetorical strategies of the book were influential and created a model for subsequent slave narratives.[21] The different kinds of aspects and ideas in his narrative, such as travel, religion, and slavery, cause some readers to debate what kind of narrative his writing is: a slavery narrative, a spiritual narrative, or a travel narrative.[2]

The work has proven so influential in the study of African and African-American literature that it is frequently taught in both English literature and History classrooms in universities. The work has also been republished in the Heinemann African Writers Series.
Olaudah Equiano Listenⓘ (/ə.ˈlaʊ.də/; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa (/ˈvæ.sə/), was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka, in present-day southern Nigeria.[1][2] Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.

As a freedman in London Equiano supported the British abolitionist movement, in the 1780s becoming one of its leading figures. Equiano was part of the abolitionist group the Sons of Africa, whose members were Africans living in Britain. His 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, sold so well that nine editions were published during his life and helped secure passage of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade in Britain.[3] The Interesting Narrative gained renewed popularity among scholars in the late 20th century and remains a useful primary source.[4][5]
Early life and enslavement

According to his 1789 memoir Equiano was born around 1745 in the Igbo village of Essaka, in what is now southern Nigeria. He claimed his home was part of the Kingdom of Benin.[6][7]

Equiano recounted an incident of an attempted kidnapping of children in his Igbo village, which was foiled by adults. 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. They were kidnapped and taken far from their home, separated and sold to slave traders. He tried to escape but was thwarted. After his owners changed several times, Equiano happened to meet with his sister but they were separated again. Six or seven months after he had been kidnapped, he arrived at the coast, where he was taken on board a European slave ship.[8][9] He was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados, in the British West Indies. He and a few other slaves were sent on for sale in the Colony of Virginia.

Literary scholar Vincent Carretta argued in his 2005 biography of Equiano that the activist could have been born in colonial South Carolina rather than Africa, based on a 1759 parish baptismal record that lists Equiano`s place of birth as Carolina and a 1773 ship`s muster that indicates South Carolina.[5][10] Carretta`s conclusion is disputed by other scholars who believe the weight of evidence supports Equiano`s account of coming from Africa.[11]

In Virginia, Equiano was bought by Michael Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Pascal renamed the boy Gustavus Vassa after the 16th-century King of Sweden Gustav Vasa[8] who began the Protestant Reformation in Sweden. Equiano had already been renamed twice: he was called Michael while on board the slave ship that brought him to the Americas 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` and eventually he submitted to the new name.: 62  He used this name for the rest of his life, including on all official records; he used Equiano only in his autobiography.[1]

Pascal took Equiano with him when he returned to England and had him accompany him as a valet during the Seven Years` War with France (1756–1763). Equiano gives witness reports of the Siege of Louisbourg (1758), the Battle of Lagos (1759) and the Capture of Belle Île (1761). Also trained in seamanship, Equiano was expected to assist the ship`s crew in times of battle: his duty was to haul gunpowder to the gun decks. Pascal favoured Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain so that he could attend school and learn to read and write.

Equiano converted to Christianity and was baptised at St Margaret`s, Westminster on 9 February 1759, when he was described in the parish register as `a Black, born in Carolina, 12 years old`.[12] His godparents were Mary Guerin and her brother, Maynard, who were cousins of his master, Pascal. They had taken an interest in him and helped him to learn English. Later, when Equiano`s origins were questioned after his book was published, the Guerins testified to his lack of English when he first came to London.[1]

In December 1762 Pascal sold Equiano to Captain James Doran of the Charming Sally at Gravesend, from where he was transported back to the Caribbean, to Montserrat, in the Leeward Islands. There, he was sold to Robert King, an American Quaker merchant from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean.[13]
Release
The wrecking of the Nancy on the Bahama Banks in 1767, from The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African

Robert King forced Equiano to work on his shipping routes and in his stores. In 1765, when Equiano was about 20 years old, King promised that for his purchase price of 40 pounds (equivalent to £6,900 in 2023) he could buy his freedom.[14] King taught him to read and write more fluently, guided him along the path of religion, and allowed Equiano to engage in profitable trading for his own account, as well as on his owner`s behalf. Equiano sold fruits, glass tumblers and other items between Georgia and the Caribbean islands. King allowed Equiano to buy his freedom, which he achieved in 1766. The merchant urged Equiano to stay on as a business partner. However, Equiano found it dangerous and limiting to remain in the British colonies as a freedman. While loading a ship in Georgia, he was almost kidnapped back into enslavement.
Freedom

By about 1768, Equiano had gone to Britain. He continued to work at sea, travelling sometimes as a deckhand based in England. In 1773 on the Royal Navy ship HMS Racehorse, he travelled to the Arctic in an expedition towards the North Pole.[15] On that voyage he worked with Dr Charles Irving, who had developed a process to distill seawater and later made a fortune from it. Two years later, Irving recruited Equiano for a project on the Mosquito Coast in Central America, where he was to use his African background to help select slaves and manage them as labourers on sugar-cane plantations. Irving and Equiano had a working relationship and friendship for more than a decade, but the plantation venture failed.[16] Equiano met with George, the `Musquito king`s son`.

Equiano left the Mosquito Coast in 1776 and arrived at Plymouth, England, on 7 January 1777.[citation needed]
Pioneer of the abolitionist cause

Equiano settled in London, where in the 1780s he became involved in the abolitionist movement.[17] The movement to end the slave trade had been particularly strong among Quakers, but the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787 as a non-denominational group, with Anglican members, in an attempt to influence parliament directly. Under the Test Act, only those prepared to receive the sacrament of the Lord`s Supper according to the rites of the Church of England were permitted to serve as MPs. Equiano had been influenced by George Whitefield`s evangelism.

As early as 1783, Equiano informed abolitionists such as Granville Sharp about the slave trade; that year he was the first to tell Sharp about the Zong massacre, which was being tried in London as litigation for insurance claims. It became a cause célèbre for the abolitionist movement and contributed to its growth.[7]

On 21 October 1785 he was one of eight delegates from Africans in America to present an `Address of Thanks` to the Quakers at a meeting in Gracechurch Street, London. The address referred to A Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies by Anthony Benezet, founder of the Society for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.[18]

Equiano was befriended and supported by abolitionists, many of whom encouraged him to write and publish his life story. He was supported financially in this effort by philanthropic abolitionists and religious benefactors. His lectures and preparation for the book were promoted by, among others, Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.
Memoir
Plaque at Riding House Street, Westminster, noting the place where Equiano lived and published his narrative

Entitled The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789), the book went through nine editions in his lifetime, with translations into Russian, German and Dutch.[17] It is one of the earliest-known examples of published writing by an African writer to be widely read in England. By 1792, it was a best seller and had been published in Russia, Germany, Holland and the United States. It was the first influential slave narrative of what became a large literary genre although Equiano`s experience in slavery was quite different from that of most slaves; he did not participate in field work, he served his owners personally and went to sea, was taught to read and write, and worked in trading.[7]

Equiano`s personal account of slavery, his journey of advancement, and his experiences as a black immigrant caused a sensation on publication. The book fueled a growing anti-slavery movement in Great Britain, Europe and the New World.[19] His account surprised many with the quality of its imagery, description and literary style.

In his account, Equiano gives details about his hometown and the laws and customs of the Eboe people. After being captured as a boy, he described communities he passed through as a captive on his way to the coast. His biography details his voyage on a slave ship and the brutality of slavery in the colonies of the West Indies, Virginia and Georgia.

Equiano commented on the reduced rights that freed people of colour had in these same places, and they also faced risks of kidnapping and enslavement. Equiano embraced Christianity at the age of 14 and its importance to him is a recurring theme in his autobiography. He was baptised into the Church of England in 1759; he described himself in his autobiography as a `protestant of the church of England` but also flirted with Methodism.[20]

Several events in Equiano`s life led him to question his faith. He was distressed in 1774 by the kidnapping of his friend, a black cook named John Annis. Annis and his former enslaver, William Kirkpatrick, had initially `parted by consent` but Kirkpatrick reneged, seeking to kidnap and re-enslave Annis. Kirkpatrick was ultimately successful, forcibly removing Annis from the British ship Anglicania where both he and Equiano served.[21] This was in violation of the decision in the Somersett Case (1772), that slaves could not be taken from England without their permission, as common law did not support the institution in England and Wales. Kirkpatrick had Annis transported to Saint Kitts, where he was punished severely and worked as a plantation labourer until he died. With the aid of Granville Sharp, Equiano tried to get Annis released before he was shipped from England but was unsuccessful. He heard that Annis was not free from suffering until he died in slavery.[22] Despite his questioning, he affirms his faith in Christianity, as seen in the penultimate sentence of his work that quotes the prophet Micah (Micah 6:8): `After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn `to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God?"

In his account, Equiano also told of his settling in London. He married an English woman and lived with her in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where they had two daughters. He became a leading abolitionist in the 1780s, lecturing in numerous cities against the slave trade. Equiano records his and Granville Sharp`s central roles in the anti-slave trade movement, and their effort to publicise the Zong massacre, which became known in 1783.

Reviewers have found that his book demonstrated the full and complex humanity of Africans as much as the inhumanity of slavery. The book was considered an exemplary work of English literature by a new African author. Equiano did so well in sales that he achieved independence from his benefactors. He travelled throughout England, Scotland and Ireland promoting the book, spending eight months in Ireland alone between 1792 and 1793.[23] He worked to improve economic, social and educational conditions in Africa. Specifically, he became involved in working in Sierra Leone, a colony founded in 1792 for freed slaves by Britain in West Africa.
Later years, radical connections

During the American War of Independence, Britain had recruited black people to fight with it by offering freedom to those who left rebel masters. In practice, it also freed women and children, and attracted thousands of slaves to its lines in New York City, which it occupied, and in the South, where its troops occupied Charleston, South Carolina. When British troops were evacuated at the end of the war, their officers also evacuated these former American slaves. They were resettled in the Caribbean, in Nova Scotia, in Sierra Leone in Africa, and in London. Britain refused to return the slaves, which the United States sought in peace negotiations.

In 1783, following the United States` gaining independence, Equiano became involved in helping the Black Poor of London, who were mostly those former African-American slaves freed during and after the American Revolution by the British. There were also some freed slaves from the Caribbean, and some who had been brought by their owners to England and freed later after the decision that Britain had no basis in common law for slavery. The black community numbered about 20,000.[24] After the Revolution some 3,000 former slaves had been transported from New York to Nova Scotia, where they became known as Black Loyalists, among other Loyalists also resettled there. Many of the freedmen found it difficult to make new lives in London or Canada.

Equiano was appointed `Commissary of Provisions and Stores for the Black Poor going to Sierra Leone` in November 1786.[citation needed] This was an expedition to resettle London`s Black Poor in Freetown, a new British colony founded on the west coast of Africa, in present-day Sierra Leone. The blacks from London were joined by more than 1,200 Black Loyalists who chose to leave Nova Scotia. They were aided by John Clarkson, younger brother of abolitionist Thomas Clarkson. Jamaican maroons, as well as slaves liberated from illegal slave-trading ships after Britain abolished the slave trade, also settled at Freetown in the early decades. Equiano was dismissed from the new settlement after protesting against financial mismanagement and he returned to London.[25][26]

Equiano was a prominent figure in London and often served as a spokesman for the black community. He was one of the leading members of the Sons of Africa, a small abolitionist group composed of free Africans in London. They were closely allied with the Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Equiano`s comments on issues were published in newspapers such as the Public Advertiser and the Morning Chronicle. He replied to James Tobin in 1788, in the Public Advertiser, attacking two of his pamphlets and a related book from 1786 by Gordon Turnbull.[27][28] Equiano had more of a public voice than most Africans or Black Loyalists and he seized various opportunities to use it.[29]

Equiano was an active member of the radical working-class London Corresponding Society (LCS), which campaigned for democratic reform. In 1791–92, touring the British Isles with his autobiography and drawing on abolitionist networks he brokered connections for the LCS, including what may have been the Society`s first contacts with the United Irishmen.[30] In Belfast, where his appearance in May 1791 was celebrated by abolitionists who five years previously had defeated plans to commission vessels in the port for the Middle Passage,[31] Equiano was hosted by the leading United Irishman, publisher of their Painite newspaper the Northern Star, Samuel Neilson.[32] Following the onset of war with revolutionary France, leading members of the LCS, including Thomas Hardy with whom Equiano lodged in 1792, were charged with treason,[33] and in 1799, following evidence of communication between leading members and the insurrectionary United Irishmen, the society was suppressed.[34]
Marriage and family
Commemorative Plaque of the marriage of Gustavus Vassa and Susannah Cullen
Commemorative plaque of the marriage of Gustavus Vassa and Susannah Cullen in St Andrew`s Church, Soham

On 7 April 1792, Equiano married Susannah Cullen, a local woman, in St Andrew`s Church, Soham, Cambridgeshire.[35] The original marriage register containing the entry for Vassa and Cullen is held today by the Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies. He included his marriage in every edition of his autobiography from 1792 onwards. The couple settled in the area and had two daughters, Anna Maria (1793–1797) and Joanna (1795–1857), who were baptised at Soham church.

Susannah died in February 1796, aged 34, and Equiano died a year later, on 31 March 1797.[8] Soon afterwards, Anna died at the age of three on 21 July 1797. Anna Maria is commemorated by a plaque on St Andrew`s Church, Chesterton, Cambridge and is buried in the churchyard.[36] The location of her grave was lost until student Cathy O’Neill identified it during her A-level studies. However, this would not be confirmed until 2021 when her work was found by Professor Victoria Avery of the Fitzwilliam Museum.[37][38]

The orphaned Joanna inherited Equiano`s estate when she was 21 years old; it was then valued at £950 (equivalent to £92,000 in 2023). Joanna Vassa married the Reverend Henry Bromley, a Congregationalist minister, in 1821. They are both buried at the non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery in Stoke Newington, London; the Bromleys` monument is now Grade II listed.[39]
Last days and will

Equiano drew up his will on 28 May 1796. At the time he was living at the Plaisterers` Hall,[40] then on Addle Street, in Aldermanbury in the City of London.[41][42] He moved to John Street (now Whitfield Street), close to Whitefield`s Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road. At his death on 31 March 1797, he was living in Paddington Street, Westminster.[43] Equiano`s death was reported in American[44] as well as British newspapers.

Equiano was buried at Whitefield`s Tabernacle on 6 April. The entry in the register reads `Gustus Vasa, 52 years, St Mary Le bone`.[45][46] His burial place has been lost. The small burial ground lay on either side of the chapel and is now Whitfield Gardens.[47] The site of the chapel is now the American International Church.

Equiano`s will, in the event of his daughters` deaths before reaching the age of 21, bequeathed half his wealth to the Sierra Leone Company for a school in Sierra Leone, and half to the London Missionary Society.[42]
Controversy related to memoir

Following publication in 1967 of a newly edited version of his memoir by Paul Edwards, interest in Equiano revived. Scholars from Nigeria have also begun studying him. For example, O. S. Ogede identifies Equiano as a pioneer in asserting `the dignity of African life in the white society of his time`.[48]

In researching his life, some scholars since the late 20th century have disputed Equiano`s account of his origins. In 1999 while editing a new version of Equiano`s memoir, Vincent Carretta, a professor of English at the University of Maryland, found two records that led him to question the former slave`s account of being born in Africa. He first published his findings in the journal Slavery and Abolition.[10][49] At a 2003 conference in England, Carretta defended himself against Nigerian academics, like Obiwu, who accused him of `pseudo-detective work` and indulging `in vast publicity gamesmanship`.[50] In his 2005 biography, Carretta suggested that Equiano may have been born in South Carolina rather than Africa, as he was twice recorded from there. Carretta wrote:

Equiano was certainly African by descent. The circumstantial evidence that Equiano was also African-American by birth and African-British by choice is compelling but not absolutely conclusive. Although the circumstantial evidence is not equivalent to proof, anyone dealing with Equiano`s life and art must consider it.[5]

According to Carretta, Equiano/Vassa`s baptismal record and a naval muster roll document him as from South Carolina.[10] Carretta interpreted these anomalies as possible evidence that Equiano had made up the account of his African origins, and adopted material from others but Paul Lovejoy, Alexander X. Byrd and Douglas Chambers note how many general and specific details Carretta can document from sources that related to the slave trade in the 1750s as described by Equiano, including the voyages from Africa to Virginia, sale to Pascal in 1754, and others. They conclude he was more likely telling what he understood as fact, rather than creating a fictional account; his work is shaped as an autobiography.[15][7][51]

Lovejoy wrote that:

circumstantial evidence indicates that he was born where he said he was, and that, in fact, The Interesting Narrative is reasonably accurate in its details, although, of course, subject to the same criticisms of selectivity and self-interested distortion that characterize the genre of autobiography.

Lovejoy uses the name of Vassa in his article, since that was what the man used throughout his life, in `his baptism, his naval records, marriage certificate and will`.[7] He emphasises that Vassa only used his African name in his autobiography.

Other historians also argue that the fact that many parts of Equiano`s account can be proven lends weight to accepting his account of African birth. As historian Adam Hochschild has written:

In the long and fascinating history of autobiographies that distort or exaggerate the truth. ... Seldom is one crucial portion of a memoir totally fabricated and the remainder scrupulously accurate; among autobiographers ... both dissemblers and truth-tellers tend to be consistent.[52]

He also noted that `since the `rediscovery` of Vassa`s account in the 1960s, scholars have valued it as the most extensive account of an eighteenth-century slave`s life and the difficult passage from slavery to freedom`.[7]
Legacy
A portrait of an unknown man previously identified as Ignatius Sancho,[53][54] or as Equiano,[55] in the Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter

The Equiano Society was formed in London in November 1996. Its main objective is to publicise and celebrate the life and work of Olaudah Equiano.[56][57]
In 1789 Equiano moved to 10 Union Street (now 73 Riding House Street). A City of Westminster commemorative green plaque was unveiled there on 11 October 2000 as part of Black History Month. Student musicians from Trinity College of Music played a fanfare composed by Professor Ian Hall for the unveiling.[58]
Equiano is honoured in the Church of England and remembered in its Calendar of saints with a Lesser Festival on 30 July, along with Thomas Clarkson and William Wilberforce who worked for abolition of the slave trade and slavery.[59][60]
In 2007, the year of the celebration in Britain of the bicentenary of the abolition of the slave trade, Equiano`s life and achievements were included in the National Curriculum, together with William Wilberforce. In December 2012 The Daily Mail claimed that both would be dropped from the curriculum, a claim which itself became subject to controversy.[61] In January 2013 Operation Black Vote launched a petition to request Education Secretary Michael Gove to keep both Equiano and Mary Seacole in the National Curriculum.[62] American Rev. Jesse Jackson and others wrote a letter to The Times protesting against the mooted removal of both figures from the National Curriculum.[63][64]
A statue of Equiano, made by pupils of Edmund Waller School, was erected in Telegraph Hill Lower Park, New Cross, London, in 2008.[65]
The head of Equiano is included in Martin Bond`s 1997 sculpture Wall of the Ancestors in Deptford, London
Author Ann Cameron adapted Equiano`s autobiography for children, leaving most of the text in Equiano`s own words; the book was published in 1995 in the U.S. by Random House as The Kidnapped Prince: The Life of Olaudah Equiano, with an introduction by historian Henry Louis Gates Jr.
On 16 October 2017, Google Doodle honoured Equiano by celebrating the 272nd year since his birth.[66]
A crater on Mercury was named `Equiano` in 1976.[67]
The exoplanet HD 43197 b was officially named Equiano in 2019 as part of NameExoWorlds.[68]
In 2019, Google Cloud named a subsea cable running from Portugal through the West Coast of Africa and terminating in South Africa after Equiano.[69]
In 2022, the city of Cambridge honoured Equiano by renaming Riverside Bridge to Equiano Bridge.[70][71]
In 2025, Equiano featured in `Rise Up: Resistance, Revolution, Abolition`[72] at the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge University an exhibition focused on individuals whose contributions were vital to British abolition such as often-forgotten Black Georgians.
In 2025, Equiano was one of five individuals celebrated in LGBTQ+ history month.[73]

Representation in other media

The Gambian actor Louis Mahoney played Equiano in the BBC television mini-series The Fight Against Slavery (1975).[74]
A 28-minute documentary, Son of Africa: The Slave Narrative of Olaudah Equiano (1996), produced by the BBC and directed by Alrick Riley, uses dramatic reconstruction, archival material and interviews to provide the social and economic context for his life and the slave trade.[75]

Numerous works about Equiano have been produced for and since the 2007 bicentenary of Britain`s abolition of the slave trade:

Equiano was portrayed by the Senegalese musician Youssou N`Dour in the film Amazing Grace (2006).
African Snow (2007), a play by Murray Watts, takes place in the mind of John Newton, a captain in the slave trade who later became an Anglican cleric and hymnwriter. It was first produced at the York Theatre Royal as a co-production with Riding Lights Theatre Company, transferring to the Trafalgar Studios in London`s West End and a national tour. Newton was played by Roger Alborough and Equiano by Israel Oyelumade.
Kent historian Dr Robert Hume wrote a children`s book entitled Equiano: The Slave with the Loud Voice (2007), illustrated by Cheryl Ives.[76]
David and Jessica Oyelowo appeared as Olaudah and his wife in Grace Unshackled – The Olaudah Equiano Story (2007), a radio adaptation of Equiano`s autobiography, created by Focus on the Family Radio Theatre.[77][78]
The British jazz artist Soweto Kinch`s first album, Conversations with the Unseen (2003), contains a track entitled `Equiano`s Tears`.
Equiano was portrayed by Jeffery Kissoon in Margaret Busby`s 2007 play An African Cargo, staged at London`s Greenwich Theatre.[79][80]
Equiano is portrayed by Danny Sapani in the BBC series Garrow`s Law (2010).
The Nigerian writer Chika Unigwe has written a fictional memoir of Equiano: The Black Messiah, originally published in Dutch as De zwarte messias (2013).[81]
In Jason Young`s 2007 short animated film, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, Chris Rochester portrayed Equiano.[82]
A TikTok series under the account @equiano.stories recounts `the true story of Olaudah Equiano`, a collection of episodes reimagining the childhood of Equiano. The story is captured as a self-recorded, first-person account, within the format of Instagram Stories/TikTok posts, using video, still images, and text.[83]
In 2022, a documentary entitled The Amazing Life of Olaudah Equiano was broadcast by BBC Radio 4, produced by Marc Wadsworth and Deborah Hobson.[84]
Katie Sweeting, author and English professor at Hudson County Community College, wrote Remnant, a historical novel about Equiano’s daughter Joanna Vassa Bromley and his sister, name unknown.[85]

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