Book: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

The autobiography of Olaudah Equiano, was an important piece of literature that helped turn public opinion in Great Britain against the slave trade. Olaudah Equiano was born in approximately 1745 in what is now Nigeria. Taken from his family by slave traders as a young child, Equiano was sold into slavery, and was eventually sold to one Lieutenant. Michael Henry Pascal, of the British Navy. During his time serving Pascal, Equiano was trained in seamanship, and sent to school to learn to read and write. He also converted to Christianity during this time and was baptized in 1759.

Equiano was eventually sold on to Robert King, a Quaker from Philadelphia who was involved in trading in the Caribbean. Robert King served as a mentor to Equiano both educationally and spiritually, and while serving King, Equiano was able to save money by trading on the side, and purchase his freedom after three years of service. He paid forty pounds for his freedom, the same price King had paid to purchase him. For the next twenty years or so, Equiano travelled extensively including participation in the Phipps expedition of 1772 searching for the Northwest Passage.

In 1786, he went to London and became an active member of the abolitionist movement. Three years later in 1789 Equiano had his autobiography published. The funds he received from the sales of the book allowed him to support himself, and after 1792 his wife Susannah Cullen. They had two daughters, though only one of them survived past the age of four. Olaudah Equiano died in 1797 at the age of fifty-two, just thirty six years before slavery was formally abolished in the British Empire The excerpt from Equiano's autobiography gives us a remarkably clear picture of what Africans who were abd...

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...ell as justice and humanity.”(page 3)

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano gave the British Empire pause to consider the atrocities committed in the name of commerce, and wealth. It also gives us a look into the social conscience of the people of the time, as Equiano was able to successfully make appeals based on the humanity of the African people being sold into slavery. The document also provides an interesting parallel to the current state of the international economy, with sweat shops in East Asia, and the continued willingness to tolerate the dehumanizing of the people working in them in order to support a global economy that is dependant on their labour. The detail shown in this document also allows us an opportunity to look at the economic system of Britain, and how economics influenced the British Empire and its relationship with Africa.