The Pioneer: Olaudah Equiano
This man was called several names in his life – Gustavus Vassa, Michael, Jacob – but when the time came to write his own story, the incredible story of his life, he chose Olaudah Equiano. Born in 1745, Equiano – pioneer writer, abolitionist – died on March 31st, 1797, leaving behind an anti-slavery legacy bigger than any name.
When he was eleven, Equiano and his sister were kidnapped from their hometown in the southeast of present-day Nigeria. Sold to slave traders, Equiano was moved several times, ‘ownership’ changing hands. His attempt to escape failed. He met his sister again at some point in this journey, but their reunion was not to last. About six or seven months after his capture, he was taken to the seacoast where European slavers held him. Along with another 244 enslaved Africans, he was transported to Barbados in the British West Indies, after which he was sent on to the colony of Virginia for sale. A lieutenant named Michael Henry Pascal ‘bought’ Equiano at Virginia and it was he who renamed him Gustavus Vassa. Equiano accompanied Pascal to England, as his valet. Because he traveled widely with his master, he became a seaman himself, participating in major naval battles. Pascal was fond of Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain to learn to read and write.
While there, Equiano became a Christian and was baptized in 1759. He was taught English by his godparents – siblings – Mary and Maynard Guerin. In 1762, Equiano had to move again. He was sold to Captain James Doran in the Carribean by Pascal, who then sold him to an American Quaker merchant from Philadelphia named Robert King. Equiano worked for King but the man taught him to read and write more fluently, shared his religion, and when Equiano was 20, King gave him an offer to buy his freedom – 40 pounds (£5,500 in 2019). Equiano bought his freedom in 1766 and declined King’s offer to stay on as a partner.
Equiano had his own sea adventures – almost getting kidnapped once. He was a deckhand; he was part of expeditions; he worked with Dr. Charles Irving who developed a seawater distillation technique. He worked with Irving in the Mosquito Coast for a while but on January 7th, 1777, Equiano arrived in Plymouth England. While in England, he was befriended by abolitionists. They were the ones who encouraged him to write his life story, a venture that they backed financially.
This story, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, was published in 1789 when he was 44 years-old. It became a best-seller; it went through nine editions in his lifetime; it was published in Russia, Holland, Germany, the United States. The book remained in print well into the mid-19th century. Even though his experience varied from that of most slaves, the book was a pioneer of the ‘slave narrative’ genre, the beginning of a black literary tradition. Equiano’s descriptions of an Africa he was snatched from, of the pre-slavery days, of the horrors of slavery, helped propel the American abolitionist movement. In fact, he became an abolitionist himself, lecturing, campaigning for immediate abolition through England. He was appointed in 1786 to serve as commissary for the ship that was to carry over 500 of London’s freed slaves to establish a settlement in Freetown Sierra Leone. He was part of the an abolitionist group of Africans living in Britain called Sons of Africa.
As for his person life, Equiano married an English woman, Susannah Cullen, on April 7, 1792, and they lived in Cambridgeshire with their two daughters – Anna Maria and Joanna. Susannah unfortunately died young in 1796, at 34. Equiano died a year after that in Westminister. Anna Maria died at the age of four, and Joanna inherited his estate.
In his autobiography, Equiano explains that children in his hometown were named after events or virtues. Olaudah meant ‘fortune’, but it was also a symbol of command of speech and his demanding voice. As a testimony of transcendence in the face of so many injustices and obstacles, of survival, of the pursuit of freedom, Olaudah Equiano fulfilled his name. He used that voice, and he was heard around the world.
