Neptune's Needle

Born in west Africa in 1745, Oloudah Equiano [also known as Gustavas Vassa] was sold into slavery at age ten and transported to the West Indies. he was then shipped to Virginia, where he was first sold to a planter and then to a British naval officer, who took the boy with him during his service at sea in the French and Indian War.

In 1762 Equiano was sold to a Quaker merchant in the West Indies, for whom he worked as a mariner after buying his freedom in 1764. He made several trips to Savannah and Philadelphia. From 1767 onwards, he regarded London as his home, although he continued to be engaged in maritime life, sailing to the Mediterranean and Central America, where he considered taking on the job of plantation overseer. In 1775 he joined the Methodist Church and thereafter was active in church affairs.

In 1789 he published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African , in which he described his life as a slave and free-black mariner throughout the Atlantic world. His was the first published account of slavery by an African who directly experienced it. Equiano/Vassa died in 1797.

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Peter Richards