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Birth
“The Interesting Narrative” says Olaudah Equiano is born the son of a chief of the Ibo
people in West Africa. The Ibo people are good dancers, musicians, poets and farmers.
Olaudah, now aged about ten or eleven, and his sister are kidnapped by Africans from another tribe and sold.
When Equiano is taken to the African coast, he sees the sea for the first time.
He is sold to traders from a British slave ship and taken from Africa to the Caribbean in terrible conditions. -
Arrives in London
1757 Equiano is bought by a Royal Navy Officer, Michael Henry Pascal for about £40 and is given the name “Gustavus Vassa” Equiano was about 12 when he first arrives in
England. He learns to read and write.
Equiano is baptised as a Christian at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster, London. -
Sold again
Equiano is sold to Captain James Doran of the ship “Charming Sally” and is taken back to Monserrat. (Pascal keeps the prize money Equiano has earned serving as a sailor in
a military campaign). -
New Owner
He is bought by, an American, Robert King, a merchant and a Quaker. -
Buys His Freedom
Equiano works for his master, Robert King, as a secretary, partly in the West Indies. He
also makes money of his own from careful trading, saving it in order to buy his freedom.
