Olaudah Equiano Abolitionist Leader

A young child in Africa… Olaudah Equiano was born in West Africa in 1745. He was kidnapped by another tribe in 1755. He was 11 years old. Olaudah was next sold to white slave traders who put him on a ship for the Americas. This was the first time he saw the ocean. .

The slave ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean and arrived in Barbados in the West Indies in 1756. Equiano did not speak English. He did not know how to read or write. He did not know where he was going or what was happening to him

The Middle Passage “The first object [I saw] when I arrived on the coast [of West Africa], was the sea, and a slave ship…waiting for its cargo. These filled me with astonishment, … soon… terror… I wished for the last friend, death, to relieve me…I would have jumped over the side, but I could not…the shrieks of the women, and the groans of the dying, [made] the whole a scene of horror almost inconceivable.” Dilemma: Olaudah saw other slaves throw themselves overboard to escape the horrors aboard the slave ship. The Middle Passage was so horrible, Olaudah wanted to kill himself sometimes.

Travels as a slave The slave ship arrived in Barbados. Olaudah had survived the Middle Passage. No one bought Olaudah in Barbados. He went on another ship to an English Colony in Virginia. A British Navy officer, Michael Henry Pascal, bought Olaudah and was his master for 7 years. He brought him to England.

More Travels as a Slave When in England, Olaudah learned to read and write. Olaudah also learned to speak English. Later, Olaudah traveled all around the world with Lt. Pascal. Lt. Pascal promised to give Olaudah his freedom, but he never did. In 1763, Lt. Pascal sold Olaudah to a new master, Mr. King. King taught Olaudah business.

How did events from 1756-1763 influence Olaudah?. Important Events He learned to read and write and speak in English He traveled the world and saw many different people and places He was promised freedom, but was not given it He learned about trade and commerce

Freedom In 1766, Olaudah bought his freedom and worked in the trade business He lived in England and became an abolitionist He lectured against the cruelty of British slave owners

He worked to resettle freed slaves in Sierre Leone His narrative was a great influence on the abolition of slavery in England and in the United States Olaudah Equiano died in 1797

The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano Olaudah’s principal reason for writing his narrative was to evoke compassion for the miseries suffered by Africans in the slave trade An English abolitionist said that Olaudah’s book was “more use to the Cause [Abolition] than half the people of the country”. Olaudah said he hoped his book would “promote the interests of humanity”

Quotations “Slavery violates that first natural right of mankind, equality and freedom, and gives one man a dominion over his fellows which God could never intend! For it raises the owner to a state as far above man as it depresses the slave below it; and, with all the presumption of human pride, sets a distinction between them, immeasurable in extend, and endless in duration!” “When you make men slaves, you deprive them of half their virtue, you set them, in your own conduct, an example of fraud, rapine, and cruelty, and compel them to live with you in a state of war, and yet you complain that they are not honest or faithful!”

Olaudah Equiano Olaudah was intelligent, quickly learned English, studied to read and write and learn about the laws and business of his enslavers Olaudah converted to Christianity which may have influenced how he told his story and who became his friends and supporters Olaudah’s autobiography was the first slave narrative and the first book published in English by an African