Who was Olaudah Equiano? | Google is celebrating the 272nd birthday of the Nigerian who helped end slave trade

Have you seen today’s Google Doodle?

Google has altered its logo today to celebrate what would have been the 272nd birthday of Olaudah Equiano, a Nigerian man who was one of the first to document his experience as a victim of slave trade.

Equiano was known as Gustavus Vassa most of his life, a name he got after he was rechristened by Royal Navy Lieutenant, Michael Pascal who bought him in 1754. But that’s just one of the many names he got in his life as a slave.

He was named Jacob by his first owner and he must have developed an affinity for the name as he insisted on being addressed by it while with Pascal and according to his memoir, it gained him “many a cuff”. Aboard the slave ship that took him to America, Equiano was called Michael.

Records have it that Pascal was relatively kind to Equiano as the latter learned to read and write with his influence, became a Christian and in 1759, he got baptised, all in their 8-year sojourn which was mostly on sea.

In 1765 when he was about 20 years old, Equiano was eventually sold off to a Philadelphia merchant, Robert King. While under King, Equiano served as a valet, a deckhand and a barber and was granted the liberty to earn money trading on the side. Thanks to the side job, Equiano was able to buy his freedom after about 3 years.

Following his freedom, Equiano went on trips across the world for 20 years then finally settled in London where he joined the movement to abolish slavery. He became part of a group of 12 men called ‘Sons of Africa’ who campaigned for abolition.

It was in London and with support from the other campaigners he wrote the book, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, that later brought him to worldwide fame.

UK news site, The Sun wrote about the bestselling book that it was “so popular that it went through nine editions during his (Equiano) lifetime, and was one of the catalysts for the Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the trade of African slaves for Britain and its colonies”.

In the book, Equiano told of how he was kidnapped at age 11 alongside his sister, and was sold to slave traders who shipped them to Barbados with other captives. And that was basically all that was known of his early life apart from the debatable fact that he was born in Essaka, Edo state.

After he rose to prominence, Equiano married English woman, Susannah Cullen in 1792. They had two children, Anna Maria and Joanna. Olaudah Equiano died in 1797 in Middlesex.

 

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