Olaudah Equiano

Equiano was born in an African village and kidnapped into slavery at the age of eleven. After being transported to the African coast and subsequently to Barbados and Virginia, he was bought by a former naval officer and merchant, Michael Henry Pascal, who brought him to England. From there he was traded between a number of different masters and participated in the French and Indian wars, events that he recounts at length in his autobiography, before finally purchasing his freedom. Later he settled in England and began to spend a great deal of time involved in the abolitionist movement as part of the “Sons of Africa,” a group of prominent African men in London. His autobiography was published when he was 44 years old and became an international bestseller, reissued in nine different editions and highly influential in the American abolitionist movement. Later in life, Equiano married a white woman, Susannah Cullen. They had several children, but only one survived into adulthood.