{"id":6349,"date":"2021-10-14T08:58:05","date_gmt":"2021-10-14T06:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.historyextra.com\/?p=188991"},"modified":"2021-10-14T09:20:12","modified_gmt":"2021-10-14T07:20:12","slug":"david-olusoga-on-the-extraordinary-story-of-olaudah-equiano","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbchistory\/rss_feed\/david-olusoga-on-the-extraordinary-story-of-olaudah-equiano\/","title":{"rendered":"David Olusoga on the extraordinary story of Olaudah Equiano"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By David Olusoga\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Thursday, 14 October 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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The history of black people in Britain during the 18th century is a series of unknowns. We don\u2019t know the size of the black \u201ccommunity\u201d, or even if black Georgians formed discrete communities. We only have fleeting glimpses as to how they interacted with one another and are unsure what proportion of them were free and what proportion lived in forms of unfreedom. While some were clearly servants, others were undoubtedly enslaved. Instead of detail, we have passing references which hint at lives that can never be better understood.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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What makes this all the more frustrating is that black Georgians themselves, despite these gaps in the historical record, are literally visible to us. They appear in hundreds of portraits, as servants, footmen, maids and stable-boys. Usually pushed up against the picture frames, they were painted not as individuals but as fashionable accessories, the exotic property of the main sitters, their masters and mistresses. Only a handful of black Georgians were the subjects of their own portraits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Yet despite this mountain of unknowns and frustrations, there are a tiny number of black Georgians who emerge from the historical record, not as fleeting apparitions, but fully formed characters. Those few were men and women who left behind their own words, in the form of letters, memoirs and biographies. The most significant of those rare texts was written by the most famous black person to appear in Britain of the late 18th century \u2013 Olaudah Equiano<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Escaping enslavement<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
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Although the exact circumstances of his birth are the subject of a historical controversy, which will be discussed in more detail later in the feature, what is certain is that Equiano experienced slavery and was able to escape from it. In 1789, having been a freeman for 23 years he published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In the early chapters Equiano describes his childhood in Africa and how it was brought to a sudden end when he and his sister were abducted by African slave traders. Marched to the coast they were separated, which devastated Equiano: \u201cIt was in vain that we besought them not to part us; she was torn from me, and immediately carried away, while I was left in a state of distraction not to be described. I cried and grieved continually; and for several days I did not eat any thing but what they forced into my mouth.\u201d He was then shipped across the Atlantic on a British slave ship to Barbados. From there he went to Virginia and was sold to a tobacco planter, who in turn sold him on to Michael Pascal, a British naval captain.<\/p>\n

\""A\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
A portrait of Olaudah Equiano from his autobiography, 1789. Equiano was a huge asset to the abolition movement, speaking against slavery \u201cwith the authority of a man who had escaped its clutches and witnessed its horrors\u201d. (Image by Getty Images)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Although the legal property of Michael Pascal, Equiano experienced slavery in a form very different to that of most enslaved Africans. Escaping the brutal life of sugar fields he instead was employed on board ships, working for Pascal while travelling across the British empir<\/a>e of the mid-18th century. These travels took him to England and into battle, serving in the Royal Navy, under Pascal, during the Seven Years\u2019 War.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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In 1762 Equiano was sold again, and by 1763 he was the property of Robert King, a Quaker merchant with interests in Monserrat. Again Equiano was employed at sea. In this stage of his life he was however permitted a life-changing liberty. Equiano was allowed to trade whatever goods he was able to acquire and keep the profits.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Over the next three years he slowly accumulated a growing stash that he carefully used to buy goods in one part of the empire that could be sold at a profit in another. Astonishingly, and despite various moments in which he was swindled, robbed and short-changed, he was able to gather together the sum of \u00a340, the price Robert King had set for the purchase of his freedom.<\/p>\n

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In 1766 King was persuaded to allow Equiano to buy his manumission from slavery. Describing the moment he secured his freedom, Equiano said: \u201cI who had been a slave in the morning, trembling at the will of another, was become my own master, and completely free. I thought this was the happiest day I had ever experienced.\u201d<\/p>\n