According to James Walvin "Equiano described his father as a local Igbo eminence and slave owner".. Essays for The Life of Olaudah Equiano.

Olaudah Equiano was an African slave in London who gained his freedom, helped to support the end of slavery in Britain, and wrote about it in his autobiography. But it was him, the boy, captured aged only 11, forced to witness uncountable horrors, the man, who gained his own freedom and made something of himself, the writer, whose words spoke to thousands of people and made them see the world differently, and, finally, the father, who hardly had any time at all with his family. Olaudah also spent nearly a year in Ireland, where he made several speeches on the evils of the slave trade.

It’s sad to think that after all Equiano had been through, he was only married for four years, before his wife died in 1796 only 36 years old. Despite his terrifying and horrific past, Olaudah was never defeated. The book’s author, Olaudah Equiano, was born in present-day Nigeria in the 1740s. Professor Tim Youngs considers how Victorian authors chronicled and questioned Britain’s imperial expansion. Olaudah Equiano was appointed to the expedition to settle former black slaves in Sierra Leone, on the west coast of Africa.

In 1789 Olaudah Equiano - an African who had by then settled in London - wrote in graphic detail about his journey from being brutally captured in Africa by the unscrupulous slave traders, to being transported across the Atlantic. Capture.

At the age of eleven Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped, along with his sister, and sold into slavery. As a young woman, Aphra Behn was a spy for Charles II's government in Antwerp and probably in South America. He was sold twice more but purchased his freedom in 1766. Despite his terrifying and horrific past, Olaudah was never defeated. Equiano did not live to see it; he died in 1797, leaving his English wife and two daughters.I feared I should be put to death, the white people looked and acted, as I thought, in so savage a manner; for I had never seen among any people such instances of brutal cruelty; and this not only shewn towards us blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves.

Olaudah Equiano . Abolition, Ethnicity, and … Primary Sources Olaudah Equiano. Without his words, undoubtedly, people would have still remained ignorant of how the slaves were treated, how appalling the conditions were. After spells in Barbados and Virginia he spent eight years travelling the world as slave to a British Royal Navy officer, who renamed him Gustavus Vassa. His final master, an English merchant in Montserrat, let him buy his freedom for £40 – almost a year’s salary for a teacher, but Equiano made it in three years of trading on the side. While he was there he sold over 1,900 copies of his book, a huge number in those days.And so, the story of the great Olaudah Equiano is finished.

He failed to make the king change his opinions and, like other members of the royal family, the king remained against abolition of the slave trade.Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:On 7th April 1792 Equiano married Susanna Cullen of Soham, Cambridgeshire.

The couple had two children, Anna Maria (16th October 1793) and Johanna (11th April 1795). In 1787 he helped his friend, Offobah Cugoano, to published a book of his experiences, Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of America. Please consider the environment before printing Equiano’s way with words enchanted people, and although it must have been shocking to find out the truth, he helped them see that slaves were not simply objects, cargo, animals.