Olaudah equiano biography summary organizer

  • Olaudah Equiano was an outstanding 18th-century African of Igbo descent.
  • Olaudah Equiano was an abolitionist and a writer whose 1789 autobiography, detailing his life as an enslaved person, was immensely popular.
  • Olaudah Equ iano was born in 1745 in what is now southeastern Nigeria.

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    Transatlantic slavery was a brutal system which lasted 300 years. It allowed African men, women and children to be stolen from their homeland, bought and sold as property, and used to produce sugar, coffee, cotton and other goods for huge profit in the European and North American markets. Its legacies are still felt across the world today.

    Olaudah Equiano (c.1745 – 1797) was born in what is now known as Southern Nigeria. At the age of 11 he was kidnapped along with his sister, marched in chains to the coast and shipped across the Atlantic along with hundreds of other fellow Africans in inhumane conditions in the hold of the ship.  On eventually arriving in what is now Barbados he was sold to a plantation owner and forced to work as a slave.  Later, he was sold to a naval officer who, against Olaudah’s will, renamed him Gustavas Vassa. During this time, he learned to read and write and, eventually, earned enough money to buy his freedom.

    He toured Britain, revealing the harsh reali

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    Olaudah Equiano: The Remarkable Life of an African Writer and Abolitionist

    Olaudah Equ iano was born in 1745 in what is now southeastern Nigeria. He was the youngest son of a family that belonged to the Igbo people, a large ethnic group that had a complex system of governance and religious beliefs. When Equiano was around 11 years old, he and his sister were kidnapped bygd African slave traders, and they were separated from their family and community. Equiano was eventually sold to British slave traders, who transported him across the Atlantic to the British colonies in North America.

     

    Equiano was initially sold to a plantation owner in Virginia, where he worked as a slave for several years. During this time, he was forced to perform back-breaking labor in harsh conditions, and he witnessed the brutal treatment of other enslaved people. However, Equiano was also able to learn new skills and gain knowledge from his experiences. He was taught how to read and write bygd the fami

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    Joseph S. Lucas and Donald A. Yerxa, Editors
    Randall J. Stephens, Associate Editor
     
     
     
    Historically Speaking: The Bulletin of the Historical Society

    January/February 2006

    Volume VII, Number 3

    OLAUDAH EQUIANO, THE SOUTH CAROLINIAN? A FORUM 
    --Vincent Carretta, "Does Equiano Still Matter?"
    --Paul E. Lovejoy, "Construction of Identity: Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa?"
    --Trevor Burnard, "Goodbye, Equiano, the African" 
    --Jon Sensbach, "Beyond Equiano"
    --Vincent Carretta, "Response to Lovejoy, Burnard, and Sensbach"

    --Postwar: An Interview with Tony Judt [full text]
    --Michael Kort, "Racing the Enemy: A Critical Look"

    THE FUTURE OF WAR: A FORUM
    --Colin S. Gray, "Been There! Done That! Blood in the Crystal Ball"
    --Peter Paret, "Comment on Gray"
    --T.X. Hammes, "The Crystal Ball Is Bloody but Still Clear"
    --Victor Davis Hanson, "Comment on Gray"
    --Antulio J. Echevarria II, "History and the Future of War"
    --Andrew J. Bacevich, "Comment

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