Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano was born in a small village near present-day Nigeria. He was kidnapped and forced into slavery at the age of 11. He eventually traveled with over 200 other slaves to Barbados.
"On the passage we were better treated than when we were coming from Africa, and we had plenty of rice and fat pork. We were landed up a river a good way from the sea, about Virginia county, where we saw few or none of our native Africans, and not one soul who could talk to me. I was a few weeks weeding grass, and gathering stones in a plantation; and at last all my companions were distributed different ways, and only myself was left. I was now exceedingly miserable, and thought myself worse off," Olaudah said (Page 90). After arriving in Virginia, Olaudah was purchased by a lieutenant in the British navy. He gained his freedom in 1768, then spent the rest of his life in England. After he settled in England, he worked to abolish slavery. He told others about his personal experiences and the harsh realities of the slave trade. |