Olaudah Equiano | |
|---|---|
.png) Equiano byDaniel Orme, frontispiece of his autobiography (1789) | |
| Born | c. 1745 Essaka inIgboland |
| Died | 31 March 1797 (aged 52) Westminster,Middlesex, United Kingdom |
| Other names | Gustavus Vassa, Jacob, Michael |
| Occupations |
|
| Known for | Influence over British abolitionists;The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano |
| Spouse | |
| Children | Anna Maria Vassa Joanna Vassa |
Olaudah Equiano (/ə.ˈlaʊ.də/; c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life asGustavus Vassa (/ˈvæ.sə/), was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka, in present-day southernNigeria.[1][2] Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he wasshipped to the Caribbean and sold to aRoyal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.
As afreedman in London Equiano supported theBritish abolitionist movement, in the 1780s becoming one of its leading figures. Equiano was part of the abolitionist group theSons of Africa, whose members were Africans living in Britain. His 1789 autobiography,The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, sold so well that nine editions were published during his life and helped secure passage of the BritishSlave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade in Britain.[3]The Interesting Narrative gained renewed popularity among scholars in the late 20th century and remains a useful primary source.[4][5]
According to his 1789 memoir Equiano was born around 1745 in the Igbo village of Essaka, in what is now southern Nigeria. He claimed his home was part of theKingdom of Benin.[6][7]
Equiano recounted an incident of an attempted kidnapping of children in hisIgbo village, which was foiled by adults. When he was around the age of eleven he and his sister were left alone to look after their family premises, as was common when adults went out of the house to work. They were kidnapped and taken far from their home, separated and sold toslave traders. He tried to escape but was thwarted. After his owners changed several times, Equiano happened to meet with his sister but they were separated again. Six or seven months after he had been kidnapped, he arrived at the coast, where he was taken on board a Europeanslave ship.[8][9] He was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean toBarbados, in theBritish West Indies. He and a few other slaves were sent on for sale in theColony of Virginia.
Literary scholar Vincent Carretta argued in his 2005 biography of Equiano that the activist could have been born incolonial South Carolina rather than Africa, based on a 1759 parish baptismal record that lists Equiano's place of birth as Carolina and a 1773 ship's muster that indicates South Carolina.[5][10] Carretta's conclusion is disputed by other scholars who believe the weight of evidence supports Equiano's account of coming from Africa.[11]
In Virginia, Equiano was bought by Michael Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in theRoyal Navy. Pascal renamed the boy Gustavus Vassa after the 16th-centuryKing of SwedenGustav Vasa[8] who began the ProtestantReformation in Sweden. Equiano had already been renamed twice: he was called Michael while on board the slave ship that brought him to the Americas and Jacob by his first owner. This time Equiano refused and told his new owner that he would prefer to be called Jacob. His refusal, he says, "gained me many a cuff" and eventually he submitted to the new name.: 62 He used this name for the rest of his life, including on all official records; he used Equiano only in his autobiography.[1]
Pascal took Equiano with him when he returned to England and had him accompany him as a valet during theSeven Years' War with France (1756–1763). Equiano gives witness reports of theSiege of Louisbourg (1758), theBattle of Lagos (1759) and theCapture of Belle Île (1761). Also trained in seamanship, Equiano was expected to assist the ship's crew in times of battle: his duty was to haul gunpowder to the gun decks. Pascal favoured Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain so that he could attend school and learn to read and write.
Equiano converted to Christianity and was baptised atSt Margaret's, Westminster on 9 February 1759, when he was described in theparish register as "a Black, born in Carolina, 12 years old".[12] His godparents were Mary Guerin and her brother, Maynard, who were cousins of his master, Pascal. They had taken an interest in him and helped him to learn English. Later, when Equiano's origins were questioned after his book was published, the Guerins testified to his lack of English when he first came to London.[1]
In December 1762 Pascal sold Equiano to Captain James Doran of theCharming Sally atGravesend, from where he was transported back to the Caribbean, toMontserrat, in theLeeward Islands. There, he was sold to Robert King, an AmericanQuaker merchant fromPhiladelphia who traded in the Caribbean.[13]
Robert King forced Equiano to work on his shipping routes and in his stores. In 1765, when Equiano was about 20 years old, King promised that for his purchase price of 40 pounds (equivalent to £6,900 in 2023) he couldbuy his freedom.[14] King taught him to read and write more fluently, guided him along the path of religion, and allowed Equiano to engage in profitable trading for his own account, as well as on his owner's behalf. Equiano sold fruits, glass tumblers and other items betweenGeorgia and the Caribbean islands. King allowed Equiano to buy his freedom, which he achieved in 1766. The merchant urged Equiano to stay on as a business partner. However, Equiano found it dangerous and limiting to remain in the British colonies as afreedman. While loading a ship in Georgia, he was almost kidnapped back into enslavement.
By about 1768, Equiano had gone to Britain. He continued to work at sea, travelling sometimes as a deckhand based in England. In 1773 on theRoyal Navy shipHMSRacehorse, he travelled to theArctic in anexpedition towards the North Pole.[15] On that voyage he worked with DrCharles Irving, who had developed a process to distill seawater and later made a fortune from it. Two years later, Irving recruited Equiano for a project on theMosquito Coast in Central America, where he was to use his African background to help select slaves and manage them as labourers onsugar-cane plantations. Irving and Equiano had a working relationship and friendship for more than a decade, but the plantation venture failed.[16] Equiano met withGeorge, the "Musquito king's son".
Equiano left the Mosquito Coast in 1776 and arrived atPlymouth, England, on 7 January 1777.[citation needed]
Equiano settled in London, where in the 1780s he became involved in theabolitionist movement.[17] The movement to end the slave trade had been particularly strong among Quakers, but theSociety for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade was founded in 1787 as anon-denominational group, with Anglican members, in an attempt to influence parliament directly. Under theTest Act, only those prepared to receive the sacrament of the Lord's Supper according to the rites of the Church of England were permitted to serve as MPs. Equiano had been influenced byGeorge Whitefield'sevangelism.
As early as 1783, Equiano informed abolitionists such asGranville Sharp about the slave trade; that year he was the first to tell Sharp about theZong massacre, which was being tried in London as litigation for insurance claims. It became acause célèbre for the abolitionist movement and contributed to its growth.[7]
On 21 October 1785 he was one of eight delegates from Africans in America to present an 'Address of Thanks' to the Quakers at a meeting inGracechurch Street, London. The address referred toA Caution to Great Britain and her Colonies byAnthony Benezet, founder of theSociety for the Relief of Free Negroes Unlawfully Held in Bondage.[18]
Equiano was befriended and supported by abolitionists, many of whom encouraged him to write and publish his life story. He was supported financially in this effort by philanthropic abolitionists and religious benefactors. His lectures and preparation for the book were promoted by, among others,Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon.
EntitledThe Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789), the book went through nine editions in his lifetime, with translations into Russian, German and Dutch.[17] It is one of the earliest-known examples of published writing by an African writer to be widely read in England. By 1792, it was a best seller and had been published in Russia, Germany, Holland and the United States. It was the first influentialslave narrative of what became a large literary genre although Equiano's experience in slavery was quite different from that of most slaves; he did not participate in field work, he served his owners personally and went to sea, was taught to read and write, and worked in trading.[7]
Equiano's personal account of slavery, his journey of advancement, and his experiences as a black immigrant caused a sensation on publication. The book fueled a growing anti-slavery movement in Great Britain, Europe and the New World.[19] His account surprised many with the quality of its imagery, description and literary style.
In his account, Equiano gives details about his hometown and the laws and customs of theEboe people. After being captured as a boy, he described communities he passed through as a captive on his way to the coast. His biography details his voyage on a slave ship and the brutality of slavery in the colonies of theWest Indies, Virginia and Georgia.
Equiano commented on the reduced rights thatfreed people of colour had in these same places, and they also faced risks of kidnapping and enslavement. Equiano embraced Christianity at the age of 14 and its importance to him is a recurring theme in his autobiography. He was baptised into theChurch of England in 1759; he described himself in his autobiography as a "protestant of the church of England" but also flirted withMethodism.[20]
Several events in Equiano's life led him to question his faith. He was distressed in 1774 by the kidnapping of his friend, a black cook named John Annis. Annis and his former enslaver, William Kirkpatrick, had initially "parted by consent" but Kirkpatrick reneged, seeking to kidnap and re-enslave Annis. Kirkpatrick was ultimately successful, forcibly removing Annis from the British shipAnglicania where both he and Equiano served.[21] This was in violation of the decision in theSomersett Case (1772), that slaves could not be taken from England without their permission, as common law did not support the institution in England and Wales. Kirkpatrick had Annis transported toSaint Kitts, where he was punished severely and worked as a plantation labourer until he died. With the aid ofGranville Sharp, Equiano tried to get Annis released before he was shipped from England but was unsuccessful. He heard that Annis was not free from suffering until he died in slavery.[22] Despite his questioning, he affirms his faith in Christianity, as seen in the penultimate sentence of his work that quotes the prophetMicah (Micah 6:8): "After all, what makes any event important, unless by its observation we become better and wiser, and learn 'to do justly, to love mercy, and to walk humbly before God?'"
In his account, Equiano also told of his settling in London. He married an English woman and lived with her inSoham, Cambridgeshire, where they had two daughters. He became a leading abolitionist in the 1780s, lecturing in numerous cities against the slave trade. Equiano records his andGranville Sharp's central roles in the anti-slave trade movement, and their effort to publicise theZong massacre, which became known in 1783.
Reviewers have found that his book demonstrated the full and complex humanity of Africans as much as the inhumanity of slavery. The book was considered an exemplary work of English literature by a new African author. Equiano did so well in sales that he achieved independence from his benefactors. He travelled throughout England, Scotland and Ireland promoting the book, spending eight months in Ireland alone between 1792 and 1793.[23] He worked to improve economic, social and educational conditions in Africa. Specifically, he became involved in working inSierra Leone, a colony founded in 1792 for freed slaves by Britain in West Africa.
During theAmerican Revolutionary War, Britain had recruited black people to fight with it by offering freedom to those who left rebel masters. In practice, it also freed women and children, and attracted thousands of slaves to its lines inNew York City, which it occupied, and in the South, where its troops occupiedCharleston, South Carolina. When British troops were evacuated at the end of the war, their officers also evacuated these former American slaves. They were resettled in the Caribbean, inNova Scotia, inSierra Leone in Africa, and in London. Britain refused to return the slaves, which the United States sought in peace negotiations.
In 1783, following the United States' gaining independence, Equiano became involved in helping theBlack Poor of London, who were mostly those former African-American slaves freed during and after the American Revolution by the British. There were also some freed slaves from the Caribbean, and some who had been brought by their owners to England and freed later after the decision that Britain had no basis incommon law for slavery. The black community numbered about 20,000.[24] After the Revolution some 3,000 former slaves had been transported from New York toNova Scotia, where they became known asBlack Loyalists, among other Loyalists also resettled there. Many of the freedmen found it difficult to make new lives in London or Canada.
Equiano was appointed "Commissary of Provisions and Stores for the Black Poor going to Sierra Leone" in November 1786.[citation needed] This was an expedition to resettleLondon's Black Poor inFreetown, a new British colony founded on the west coast of Africa, in present-daySierra Leone. The blacks from London were joined by more than 1,200 Black Loyalists who chose to leaveNova Scotia. They were aided byJohn Clarkson, younger brother of abolitionistThomas Clarkson. Jamaicanmaroons, as well as slaves liberated from illegal slave-trading ships after Britain abolished the slave trade, also settled at Freetown in the early decades. Equiano was dismissed from the new settlement after protesting against financial mismanagement and he returned to London.[25][26]
Equiano was a prominent figure in London and often served as a spokesman for the black community. He was one of the leading members of theSons of Africa, a small abolitionist group composed of free Africans in London. They were closely allied with theSociety for the Abolition of the Slave Trade. Equiano's comments on issues were published in newspapers such as thePublic Advertiser and theMorning Chronicle. He replied toJames Tobin in 1788, in thePublic Advertiser, attacking two of his pamphlets and a related book from 1786 by Gordon Turnbull.[27][28] Equiano had more of a public voice than most Africans orBlack Loyalists and he seized various opportunities to use it.[29]
Equiano was an active member of theradical working-classLondon Corresponding Society (LCS), which campaigned for democratic reform. In 1791–92, touring the British Isles with his autobiography and drawing on abolitionist networks he brokered connections for the LCS, including what may have been the Society's first contacts with theUnited Irishmen.[30] InBelfast, where his appearance in May 1791 was celebrated by abolitionists who five years previously had defeated plans to commission vessels in the port for theMiddle Passage,[31] Equiano was hosted by the leading United Irishman, publisher of their Painite newspaper theNorthern Star,Samuel Neilson.[32] Following the onset of war with revolutionary France, leading members of the LCS, includingThomas Hardy with whom Equiano lodged in 1792, were charged with treason,[33] and in 1799, following evidence of communication between leading members and the insurrectionary United Irishmen, the society was suppressed.[34]
On 7 April 1792, Equiano married Susannah Cullen, a local woman, in St Andrew's Church,Soham, Cambridgeshire.[35] The original marriage register containing the entry for Vassa and Cullen is held today by theCambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies. He included his marriage in every edition of his autobiography from 1792 onwards. The couple settled in the area and had two daughters, Anna Maria (1793–1797) andJoanna (1795–1857), who were baptised at Soham church.
Susannah died in February 1796, aged 34, and Equiano died a year later, on 31 March 1797.[8] Soon afterwards, Anna died at the age of three on 21 July 1797. Anna Maria is commemorated by a plaque onSt Andrew's Church,Chesterton, Cambridge and is buried in the churchyard.[36] The location of her grave was lost until student Cathy O’Neill identified it during her A-level studies. However, this would not be confirmed until 2021 when her work was found by Professor Victoria Avery of the Fitzwilliam Museum.[37][38]
The orphaned Joanna inherited Equiano's estate when she was 21 years old; it was then valued at £950 (equivalent to £92,000 in 2023). Joanna Vassa married the Reverend Henry Bromley, aCongregationalist minister, in 1821. They are both buried at thenon-denominationalAbney Park Cemetery inStoke Newington, London; the Bromleys' monument is nowGrade II listed.[39]
Equiano drew up his will on 28 May 1796. At the time he was living at thePlaisterers' Hall,[40] then on Addle Street, in Aldermanbury in theCity of London.[41][42] He moved to John Street (nowWhitfield Street), close toWhitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road. At his death on 31 March 1797, he was living inPaddington Street,Westminster.[43] Equiano's death was reported in American[44] as well as British newspapers.
Equiano was buried at Whitefield's Tabernacle on 6 April. The entry in the register reads "Gustus Vasa, 52 years,St Mary Le bone".[45][46] His burial place has been lost. The small burial ground lay on either side of the chapel and is now Whitfield Gardens.[47] The site of the chapel is now theAmerican International Church.
Equiano's will, in the event of his daughters' deaths before reaching theage of 21, bequeathed half his wealth to theSierra Leone Company for a school in Sierra Leone, and half to theLondon Missionary Society.[42]
Following publication in 1967 of a newly edited version of his memoir byPaul Edwards, interest in Equiano revived. Scholars fromNigeria have also begun studying him. For example, O. S. Ogede identifies Equiano as a pioneer in asserting "the dignity of African life in the white society of his time".[48]
In researching his life, some scholars since the late 20th century have disputed Equiano's account of his origins. In 1999 while editing a new version of Equiano's memoir, Vincent Carretta, a professor of English at theUniversity of Maryland, found two records that led him to question the former slave's account of being born in Africa. He first published his findings in the journalSlavery and Abolition.[10][49] At a 2003 conference inEngland, Carretta defended himself against Nigerian academics, likeObiwu, who accused him of "pseudo-detective work" and indulging "in vast publicity gamesmanship".[50] In his 2005 biography, Carretta suggested that Equiano may have been born in South Carolina rather than Africa, as he was twice recorded from there. Carretta wrote:
Equiano was certainly African by descent. The circumstantial evidence that Equiano was also African-American by birth and African-British by choice is compelling but not absolutely conclusive. Although the circumstantial evidence is not equivalent to proof, anyone dealing with Equiano's life and art must consider it.[5]
According to Carretta, Equiano/Vassa's baptismal record and a navalmuster roll document him as fromSouth Carolina.[10] Carretta interpreted these anomalies as possible evidence that Equiano had made up the account of his African origins, and adopted material from others butPaul Lovejoy, Alexander X. Byrd and Douglas Chambers note how many general and specific details Carretta can document from sources that related to the slave trade in the 1750s as described by Equiano, including the voyages from Africa to Virginia, sale to Pascal in 1754, and others. They conclude he was more likely telling what he understood as fact, rather than creating a fictional account; his work is shaped as an autobiography.[15][7][51]
Lovejoy wrote that:
circumstantial evidence indicates that he was born where he said he was, and that, in fact,The Interesting Narrative is reasonably accurate in its details, although, of course, subject to the same criticisms of selectivity and self-interested distortion that characterize the genre of autobiography.
Lovejoy uses the name of Vassa in his article, since that was what the man used throughout his life, in "his baptism, his naval records, marriage certificate and will".[7] He emphasises that Vassa only used his African name in his autobiography.
Other historians also argue that the fact that many parts of Equiano's account can be proven lends weight to accepting his account of African birth. As historianAdam Hochschild has written:
In the long and fascinating history of autobiographies that distort or exaggerate the truth. ... Seldom is one crucial portion of a memoir totally fabricated and the remainder scrupulously accurate; among autobiographers ... both dissemblers and truth-tellers tend to be consistent.[52]
He also noted that "since the 'rediscovery' of Vassa's account in the 1960s, scholars have valued it as the most extensive account of an eighteenth-century slave's life and the difficult passage from slavery to freedom".[7]
Numerous works about Equiano have been produced for and since the 2007 bicentenary of Britain's abolition of the slave trade:
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