Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa
After he purchased his freedom in 1766, Equiano joined the Sons of Africa, which was an abolitionist group composed of Africans living in Britain. He was also active among leaders of the anti –slave trade movement in the 1780s, and in 1789 he published his autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah EquianoIt depicted the horrors of slavery and nine editions were produced in his lifetime. It played a role in the passage of the British Slave Trade Act in 1807, which abolished the slave trade.
1745
1797
The Benin Kingdom, present Southern Nigeria
Black African
1766- purchased his freedom
1780s – part of the anti-slave trade movement
1789 – published his autobiography
He was born in Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin, in the area that is now southern Nigeria. When he was 11 he and his sister was kidnapped and separated, and sold into slavery. His owners changed several times , and once he met his sister, but was separated from her again. Seven months after his kidnap he was taken to Europe and sold in Barbados. He was bought by Michael Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, who renamed him Gustavus Vassa. Prior to this, his name had already been changed twice by slave masters. He refused this new name but was coerced into answering to it and kept this name for the rest of his life, only referring to himself as Equiano in his autobiography.
Equiano joined the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group of Africans living in Britain. He was also active among leaders of the anti-slave trade movement in the 1780s, and he published his autobiography in 1789
The Equiano Society, whose main objective is to publicise and celebrate the life and work of Olaudah Equiano, was formed in London in November 1996
Personal Life
He is honoured in the Church of England and remembered in its Calendar of Saints on 30 July for his work in the abolition of slavery
A crater on Mercury was named Equiano in 1976
In 2008 a statue of Equiano made by pupils of Edmund Waller School was erected in Telegraph Hill Lower Park, New Cross, London.
In 1792 he married an English woman named Susannah Cullen, and they had two daughters.
Was Olaudah Equiano a nonconformist? Miscellanea Edintone. (2021, June 12). Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://www.edintone.com/olaudah-equiano/
BBC. (n.d.). History – olaudah equiano. BBC. Retrieved March 9, 2022, from https://www.bbc.co.uk/history/historic_figures/equiano_olaudah.shtml
Thomas, Shirley (10 February 2019). “Iconic Guyanese working to promote Caribbean heritage in Britain”. Guyana Chronicle.
“William Wilberforce, Olaudah Equiano and Thomas Clarkson” 9 October 2014 at the Wayback Machine, Common Worship Texts: Festivals.
“Little treasures: #1 Equiano”. 25 June 2008.
Planetary names: Crater, craters: Equiano on Mercury. (n.d.). https://planetarynames.wr.usgs.gov/Feature/1819
he Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Written by Himself, R.R. Donnelly & Sons Company, 2004
