The events of the narrative take place in many settings around the world, mostly in the Atlantic Ocean. Equiano starts by describing his home country (modern day Nigeria), where he lived until he was kidnapped and enslaved at age 11. From then on, he describes each place he ends up as he crisscrosses the Atlantic. For instance, he notes that American plantations are especially cruel: there, enslavers have invented all kinds of torture devices that they use on the people they enslave. The West Indies also have cruel working and living conditions, but things are not quite as vicious there. For much of the narrative, Equiano hopes to go to Philadelphia, where the pacifist Quakers live. He imagines that the Quakers have created a more free society than he has encountered anywhere else. He eventually goes to Philadelphia several times and finds that it does meet some of his expectations. Ultimately, though, he keeps traveling and finds that most of the world normalizes the violence of slavery.
Ships are their own setting in the narrative. Equiano describes the horrible conditions on the ships that transport kidnapped and enslaved Africans across the Atlantic. He also describes the many ships on which he lives and works, first as an enslaved person and then as a free man who goes on to enslave others. The ships, which facilitate trade, are an important setting because they represent the commercial world in which Equiano comes of age. He points out to his readers that he has risen through the ranks in this setting, from an enslaved child to a merchant in his own right. This is by no means an uncomplicated success arc, but Equiano holds it up as evidence that Africans are fit for full participation in the British economy—a point that was unfortunately necessary to prove at the time.
