51 Facts About Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano, known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist.

Olaudah Equiano was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.

Olaudah Equiano was part of the abolitionist group the Sons of Africa, whose members were Africans living in Britain.

Olaudah Equiano claimed his home was part of the Kingdom of Benin.

Olaudah Equiano recounted an incident of an attempted kidnapping of children in his Igbo village, which was foiled by adults.

Olaudah Equiano was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados in the British West Indies.

Literary scholar Vincent Carretta argued in his 2005 biography of Olaudah Equiano that the activist could have been born in colonial South Carolina rather than Africa, based on a 1759 parish baptismal record that lists Olaudah Equiano's place of birth as Carolina and a 1773 ship's muster that indicates South Carolina.

In Virginia, Olaudah Equiano was bought by Michael Henry Pascal, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy.

Olaudah 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.

Olaudah Equiano used this name for the rest of his life, including on all official records; he only used Equiano in his autobiography.

Olaudah Equiano gives witness reports of the Siege of Louisbourg, the Battle of Lagos and the Capture of Belle Ile.

Also trained in seamanship, Olaudah 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 Olaudah Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain so that he could attend school and learn to read and write.

Later, when Olaudah Equiano's origins were questioned after his book was published, the Guerins testified to his lack of English when he first came to London.

In 1765, when Olaudah Equiano was about 20 years old, King promised that for his purchase price of 40 pounds he could buy his freedom.

King taught him to read and write more fluently, guided him along the path of religion, and allowed Olaudah Equiano to engage in profitable trading for his own account, as well as on his owner's behalf.

Olaudah Equiano sold fruits, glass tumblers and other items between Georgia and the Caribbean islands.

King allowed Olaudah Equiano to buy his freedom, which he achieved in 1766.

The merchant urged Olaudah Equiano to stay on as a business partner.

However, Olaudah Equiano found it dangerous and limiting to remain in the British colonies as a freedman.

Olaudah Equiano continued to work at sea, travelling sometimes as a deckhand based in England.

Olaudah Equiano settled in London, where in the 1780s he became involved in the abolitionist movement.

Olaudah Equiano was befriended and supported by abolitionists, many of whom encouraged him to write and publish his life story.

Olaudah Equiano was supported financially in this effort by philanthropic abolitionists and religious benefactors.

Olaudah Equiano commented on the reduced rights that freed people of colour had in these same places, and they faced risks of kidnapping and enslavement.

Olaudah Equiano embraced Christianity at the age of 14 and its importance to him is a recurring theme in his autobiography.

Olaudah Equiano was baptised into the Church of England in 1759; he described himself in his autobiography as a "protestant of the church of England" but flirted with Methodism.

Several events in Olaudah Equiano's life led him to question his faith.

Olaudah Equiano was distressed in 1774 by the kidnapping of his friend, a black cook named John Annis.

Olaudah Equiano heard that Annis was not free from suffering until he died in slavery.

Olaudah Equiano married an English woman and lived with her in Soham, Cambridgeshire, where they had two daughters.

Olaudah Equiano became a leading abolitionist in the 1780s, lecturing in numerous cities against the slave trade.

Olaudah Equiano did so well in sales that he achieved independence from his benefactors.

Olaudah Equiano travelled throughout England, Scotland and Ireland promoting the book, spending eight months in Ireland alone between 1792 and 1793.

Olaudah Equiano worked to improve economic, social and educational conditions in Africa.

In 1783, following the United States' gaining independence, Olaudah Equiano became involved in helping the Black Poor of London, who were mostly those former African-American slaves freed during and after the American Revolution by the British.

Olaudah Equiano was dismissed from the new settlement after protesting against financial mismanagement and he returned to London.

Olaudah Equiano was a prominent figure in London and often served as a spokesman for the black community.

Olaudah Equiano was one of the leading members of the Sons of Africa, a small abolitionist group composed of free Africans in London.

Olaudah Equiano replied to James Tobin in 1788, in the Public Advertiser, attacking two of his pamphlets and a related book from 1786 by Gordon Turnbull.

Olaudah Equiano had more of a public voice than most Africans or Black Loyalists and he seized various opportunities to use it.

Olaudah Equiano was an active member of the radical working-class London Corresponding Society, which campaigned for democratic reform.

Olaudah Equiano included his marriage in every edition of his autobiography from 1792 onwards.

Olaudah Equiano moved to John Street, close to Whitefield's Tabernacle, Tottenham Court Road.

Olaudah Equiano's death was reported in American as well as British newspapers.

In 1999 while editing a new version of Olaudah Equiano's memoir, Vincent Carretta, a professor of English at the University of Maryland, found two records that led him to question the former slave's account of being born in Africa.

Olaudah Equiano first published his findings in the journal Slavery and Abolition.

The circumstantial evidence that Olaudah Equiano was African-American by birth and African-British by choice is compelling but not absolutely conclusive.

Carretta interpreted these anomalies as possible evidence that Olaudah Equiano had made up the account of his African origins, and adopted material from others.

Olaudah Equiano emphasises that Vassa only used his African name in his autobiography.

Olaudah Equiano 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".