Olaudah Equiano Summary

Olaudah Equiano's narrative is one of the first accounts of an african journey of slavery making it the first slave narrative. Equiano claims he was born in the Danish island of St. Croix in the caribbean but in reality he was born in Africa and eventually kidnapped along side his sister and was sold into slavery. He probably made this claim to try and get out of slavery and into freedom when he was owned by Pascal. He was purchased by Michael Henry Pascal a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Pascal had intended him as a gift but instead kept Equiano as an aid towards his ship and crew. During the Seven Years war Equiano started learning to read and write through religious texts. As a sailor he became indispensable to Pascal. After many years Equiano wanted freedom and hoped that Pascal might allow
Pascal learning of Equiano's ambition and sold him to Captain Doran. Doran then sold Equiano to Robert King, a wealthy and Quaker merchant who worked out of Philadelphia. Still hoping to one day purchase freedom. Equiano traveled to America and the West Indies. There he witnessed terrible punishments and treatment inflicted upon the Africans who worked in plantations. He realized that free blacks in some ways were worse off than slaves. Equiano raised enough money to buy his freedom and he continued to sail with King but now as a paid sailor. Equiano’s travels brought him to Turkey, Martinico, Georgia, Montserrat, Grenada, France, and even to the North Pole. After several near death experiences on the North Pole expedition, Equiano decided to seek God in a deeper way. He came to understand a new way of interpreting the Bible. He eventually moved and lived in London and protested slavery and its