Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka in modern southern Nigeria. Enslaved as a child in the Kingdom of Benin, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold an additional two times before purchasing his freedom in 1766.
According to his autobiographical account, Equiano was captured in his Igbo village at age 11 and then sold into slavery by African slave traders. The Africans sold him to English traders who took him to Barbados in the Caribbean Sea. From Barbados, Equiano was eventually transported to the North American colony of Virginia, where a Royal Navy lieutenant named Michael Henry Pascal bought him. The two would form a close friendship. Pascal named him Gustavus Vassa after a 16th-century King of Sweden. This was the name Equiano answered to for the rest of his life. Equiano and Pascal traveled extensively and fought together in the Seven-Year War, where Equiano served as a powder monkey.
New Jersey Student Learning Standards:
- 6.1.12.CivicsDP.3.c: Examine the origins of the antislavery movement and the impact of particular events, such as the Amistad decision, on the movement.
- 6.1.12.HistoryUP.3.b: Examine a variety of sources from multiple perspectives on slavery and evaluate the claims used to justify the arguments.
Curriculum
- 3 Sections
- 3 Lessons
- Lifetime
- Stage 11
- Stage 21
- Stage 31
