today we're looking at a lot of equiano
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questions down in the description so today we're focusing on the life of olada equiano who was a
former enslaved person himself who became a writer and leading abolitionist that helped to expose
the evils of the evils of the slave trade and slavery and helped to fight for its elimination
in 1789 he published his autobiography entitled the interesting narrative of the life of a lot
of equiano in it he described his experiences of being enslaved surviving the middle passage
and his life enduring slavery much of what we understand today about the middle passage comes
from equiano's personal experiences equiano was born somewhere around 1745 in what would be today
southern nigeria and africa he recounts that his father was among the leaders of the community and
also describes european visitors coming to his village bringing guns and gunpowder and
exchanging them for prisoners of war or criminals to be enslaved they're being held in his village
at around the age of 11 equiliano and his sister were left to take care of their home while their
parents went out to work for the day while their parents were gone that day olada and his sister
were kidnapped kidnapping was a common occurrence as people were kidnapped and sold into slavery
to european slave traders olato was separated from his sister and after several months arrived
at the coast where he was placed on a ship and taken to the island of barbados from there he
was sent on to be sold in virginia in virginia he was purchased by michael henry pascal who was a
member of the british royal navy paschal renamed equiano gustavus vassa and that was the name
equiano would use for most of his life it actually wasn't until he wrote his autobiography that he
used his given name of equiano during the seven years years war from 1766 1763 equiano traveled
with pascal back to england and became trained in seamanship and was involved in several sea battles
pascal was so impressed with ecuador that he sent him to live with his sister-in-law in
england so that he could go to school and learn to read and write in 1762 pascal sold equiano and
he was taken back to the caribbean where he was purchased by robert king who was a quaker merchant
from philadelphia now you might be surprised at how many times equiano was purchased and sold but
unfortunately that was a co was common for most enslaved people to be sold
many times robert king basically made a deal with equiano that he could purchase his freedom
once he saved up enough money king helped equiano to learn to read and write more and also allowed
ecuador to work independently of him and trade and make his own profits and in 1766
equiano purchased his freedom however he realized quickly that staying in the american colonies
would be dangerous as he was almost kidnapped back into slavery again while in georgia so he traveled
back to england and from there he became a ship hand and for a lack of better words embarked on
several adventures traveling to the arctic and central america and by the early 1780s
he was living back in london and began to get involved in the very early abolitionist
movement or fight to eliminate slavery those involved in the movement very quickly realized
what a powerful voice equiano could be for the cause because he had experienced all these things
himself and could give firsthand accounts of just how terrible the institution of slavery was
and furthermore the fact that he had survived the middle passage and witnessed the atrocities of the
atlantic slave trade made him invaluable to the cause many other abolitionists began to encourage
him to write and speak about his experiences he became one of the leaders of what was called the
sons of africa which was an abolitionist group in london made up of former enslaved people he gave
lectures and spoke out against the institution of slavery during the american revolution the british
government offered freedom to any enslaved person in the american colonies that would fight on
behalf of the british once the war was over many of these former enslaved people were displaced to
england or canada and equiano became a champion for their rights and attempted to help resettle
and establish homes for them a lot of equiano died on march 31 1797 at about the age of 52.
he was buried in london but due to development his grave today has been lost now although his final
resting place has been lost his legacy lives on in a time when many did not consider equiano to be
a man simply because of the color of his skin he overcame incredible odds and he stood up and made
his voice heard and made many realize the terrible truth about slavery in 1807 the british outlawed
the slave trade and throughout their empire and in 1833 they outlawed slavery altogether
equiano did not live to see either one of these take place but it's clear that equiano contributed
heavily to both so with that hopefully you learned something and thanks for watching