English 12 AH

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Olaudah EquianoAbolitionist Leader

• English 12 AH
• JL Ilsley HS

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A young child in Africa

• Olaudah Equiano was born in West Africa in 1745.
• He was kidnapped by another tribe in 1755. He was
  11 years old.
• Olaudah was next sold to white slave traders who
  put him on a ship for the Americas. This was the
  first time he saw the ocean.
• The slave ship crossed the Atlantic Ocean and
  arrived in Barbados in the West Indies in 1756.
• Equiano did not speak English. He did not know
  how to read or write.
• He did not know where he was going or what was
  happening to him.

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The Middle Passage

• The first object I saw when I arrived on the
  coast of West Africa, was the sea, and a slave
  shipwaiting for its cargo. These filled me with
  astonishment, soon terror I wished for the
  last friend, death, to relieve meI would have
  jumped over the side, but I could notthe shrieks
  of the women, and the groans of the dying, made
  the whole a scene of horror almost
  inconceivable. (chapter 2)
• Dilemma Olaudah saw other slaves throw
  themselves overboard to escape the horrors aboard
  the slave ship. The Middle Passage was so
  horrible, Olaudah wanted to kill himself
  sometimes.

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Travels as a slave

• The slave ship arrived in Barbados. Olaudah had
  survived the Middle Passage.
• No one bought Olaudah in Barbados. He went on
  another ship to an English Colony in Virginia.
• A British Navy officer, Michael Henry Pascal,
  bought Olaudah and was his master for 7 years. He
  brought him to England.
• When in England, Olaudah learned to read and
  write. Olaudah also learned to speak English.
• Later, Olaudah traveled all around the world with
  Lt. Pascal.
• Lt. Pascal promised to give Olaudah his freedom,
  but he never did. In 1763, Lt. Pascal sold
  Olaudah to a new master, Mr. King. King taught
  Olaudah business.

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How did events from 1756-1763 influence Olaudah?.

• Important Events
• He learned to read and write and speak in English
• He traveled the world and saw many different
  people and places
• He was promised freedom, but was not given it
• He learned about trade and commerce
• What did Olaudah gain from his situation as a
  slave with Lt. Pascal?
• How might this have helped him eventually to
  become an abolitionist leader?
• What did he gain from his situation as a slave
  with Mr. King?
• How might this have helped him eventually to
  become an abolitionist leader?
• How do you think the unfulfilled promise of
  freedom motivated Olaudah?

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Freedom

• In 1766, Olaudah bought his freedom and worked in
  the trade business
• He lived in England and became an abolitionist
• He lectured against the cruelty of British slave
  owners
• He spoke out against the English slave trade
• He worked to resettle freed slaves in Sierre
  Leone
• Olaudah published a narrative about his life in
  1789
• His narrative was a great influence on the
  abolition of slavery in England and in the United
  States
• Olaudah Equiano died in 1797
• In 1807, Great Britain abolished the slave trade

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The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah
Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African (1789) by
Olaudah Equiano

• Olaudahs principal reason for writing his
  narrative was to evoke compassion for the
  miseries suffered by Africans in the slave trade
• An English abolitionist said that Olaudahs book
  was more use to the Cause Abolition than half
  the people of the country.
• Olaudah said he hoped his book would promote the
  interests of humanity

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Quotations

• Slavery violates that first natural right of
  mankind, equality and freedom, and gives one man
  a dominion over his fellows which God could never
  intend! For it raises the owner to a state as far
  above man as it depresses the slave below it
  and, with all the presumption of human pride,
  sets a distinction between them, immeasurable in
  extend, and endless in duration!
• When you make men slaves, you deprive them of
  half their virtue, you set them, in your own
  conduct, an example of fraud, rapine, and
  cruelty, and compel them to live with you in a
  state of war, and yet you complain that they are
  not honest or faithful!
• As the inhuman traffic of slavery is to be taken
  into the consideration of the British
  legislature, I doubt not, if a system of commerce
  was established in Africa, the demand for
  manufactures would most rapidly augmenta
  commercial intercourse with Africa opens an
  inexhaustible source of wealth to the
  manufacturing interests of Great Britain, and to
  all which the slave trade is an objectionThe
  abolition of slavery would be in reality a
  universal good.

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Olaudah Equiano

• Olaudah was intelligent, quickly learned English,
  studied to read and write and learn about the
  laws and business of his enslavers
• Olaudah converted to Christianity which may have
  influenced how he told his story and who became
  his friends and supporters
• Olaudahs autobiography was the first slave
  narrative and the first book published in English
  by an African
• His narrative was very effective in behalf of
  abolitionism
• Olaudah knew how to convince his readers that
  slavery was inhumane
• Olaudah survived horrible situations and overcame
  them
• Olaudah was willing to work hard for what he
  wanted

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From your reading (Value 15)

• 1. Cite and reflect on a quotation that expresses
  the difficulties experienced by Equiano.
• 2. Cite and reflect on a quotation that
  expresses how Equianos literacy and/or
  intelligence helped him to survive and thrive.
• Explain why Equiano was an ideal spokesman for
  the Abolitionist movement.

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Works Cited

• PBS resource guide, Africans in America
  http//www.pbs.org/wgbh/aia/part1/1p276.html
• University of Michigan http//wmich.edu/dialogues/
  texts/lifeofolaudahequiano.htm
• Brycchan Careys website for Olaudah Equiano
  http//www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/index.htm
• Equiano Foundation Online http//www.atomicage.com
  /equiano/index.html
• University of North Carolina Documenting the
  American South http//docsouth.unc.edu/neh/neh.ht
  ml
• Library of Congress The African American
  Odyssey, Slaves and the Courts
  http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/sthtml
• Selections of Olaudah Equianos narrative
  http//wsu.edu/dee/Equiano.html
• The Mariners Museum, Captive Passage
  http//wsu.edu/dee/Equiano.html
• Understanding Slavery http//www.understandingslav
  ery.com/citizen/explore/activism/gallery/?id1376
• African American Odyssey, Anti-Slavery Movements
  and the Rise of the Sectional Controversy
  http//memory.loc.gov/ammem/aaohtml/exhibit/aopart
  3.html
• The African American Mosaic http//www.loc.gov/exh
  ibits/african/afam007.html
• The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American Slavery
  http//www.gilderlehrman.org/collection/online/wil
  berforce/index.html
• History Matters http//historymatters.gmu.edu/d/63
  72/