He himself did not travel to Sierra Leone, though he had earlier attempted, unsuccessfully, to be ordained and sent to Africa as a missionary. He was appointed to a post on a project for the black poor going to Sierra Leone, a colony founded by Britain in Africa for freed slaves. The ex-slave also aided the abolitionist cause while in London. Equiano managed to save enough money to purchase his freedom, after which he continued to work as a sailor, participating in an early expedition to the Arctic Ocean and visiting the eastern Mediterranean Sea. He acquired the slave name Gustavus Vassa, later buying his way out of bondage. By the time he was 21 he had served England’s navy in its war against the French and worked on trading ships in the West Indies and the southern United States, surviving the countless dangers of sea and slavery. Born in 1745 to the chieftain of an Igbo village in Nigeria, he was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 11. Olaudah Equiano led one of the most intriguing existences in the last century of the transatlantic slave trade. Equiano’s Travels: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa the AfricanĪ memoir set primarily in Africa, England, and North America from 1745 to 1787 published in English in 1789.Ī well-traveled former slave recounts his experiences as a slave and as a free man, on trading ships and on land.Įvents in History at the Time the Memoir Takes PlaceĮvents in History at the Time the Memoir Was Written
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