Transatlantic Slave Networks by Toler Pamela;

Author:Toler, Pamela;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Cavendish Square Publishing LLC

The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

Most accounts of the slave trade were written by traders or by people dedicated to abolishing the slave trade. Though the slaves themselves wrote few accounts, one important exception is The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, published in 1789.

Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 in what is now Nigeria. When he was ten or eleven, he was kidnapped and sold as a slave in Barbados, but he did not remain in Barbados long. He was sold first to a planter in Virginia and three months later to a British naval officer. He spent most of his time as a slave working on British slave ships and naval vessels. One of his owners, Henry Pascal, the captain of a British trading ship, gave Equiano the name Gustavas Vassa, which he used for most of his life.

In 1762, Equiano was sold to Robert King, a Quaker merchant from Philadelphia. King allowed Equiano to trade small amounts of merchandise on his own behalf. He earned enough money to buy his freedom in 1766.

Once free, Equiano settled in England, where he worked as a merchant and became active in the abolition movement there. At the urging of his abolitionist friends, he wrote a memoir describing his capture and his experiences as a slave. The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African, Written by Himself became a best seller in England.

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