Today in History; Great Africans

 Today in History Olaudah Equiano 

According to his own account, Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745.

Olaudah, means one who has a loud voice and is well spoken, and signifies good fortune. He was the youngest son, with six brothers and sisters. His father was a man of dignity, given the title "Embrenché" (modern Igbo: mgburichi), a man whom he remembers bearing scarifications on his forehead, which signified his father's status. Equiano expected to receive such scarification when he came of age among the males of his community. Equiano recollects his mother teaching him self-defence, and he witnessed her taking part in communal wars. His mother was particularly impressed on him the religious rites of his community. She often carried him along to an ancestral shrine in the wild where his maternal grandmother was buried; she would give offerings to the shrine and weep by its side. Equiano said his early life was filled with what his people considered good omens or mysterious signs; for instance, he was on a path in his village when he accidentally stood on a large snake but was left unharmed.

Equiano recounted an incident when an attempted kidnapping of children was thwarted by adults in his villages. When he was around the age of eleven, he and his sister were left alone to look after their family's compound, as was common when adults went out of the house for work. They were both kidnapped and taken far away from their hometown, separated, and sold to slave traders. After changing hands several times, Equiano met his sister again, but they were separated and he was taken over a large river to the coast, where he was held by European slave traders.[3][9] He was transported with 244 other enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean to Barbados in the West Indies. He and a few other slaves were sent on to the British colony of Virginia. Literary scholar Vincent Carretta argued in his 2005 biography of Equiano that the activist may have been born in colonial South Carolina rather than Africa based on Carretta's discovery of a 1759 parish baptismal record and a 1773 ship's muster, both of which list Equiano's place of birth as South Carolina.[10][11] A number of scholars agree with Carretta, while his conclusion is disputed by other scholars who believe the weight of evidence supports Equiano's account of coming from Igboland.

In Virginia, Equiano was bought in 1754 by Michael Pascal, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Pascal renamed the boy as "Gustavus Vassa," after the Swedish noble who had become Gustav I of Sweden, king in the 16th century.[3] Equiano had already been renamed twice: he was called Michael while on the slave ship that brought him to the Americas; and Jacob, by his first owner. This time Equiano refused and told his new owner that he would prefer to be called Jacob. His refusal, he says, "gained me many a cuff" – and eventually he submitted to the new name.[9]:62 He used this name for the rest of his life, including on all official records. He only used Equiano in his autobiography.[4]

Equiano wrote in his narrative that domestic slaves in Virginia were treated cruelly and suffered punishments such as the "iron muzzle" (scold's bridle), which was used to keep house slaves quiet, leaving them unable to speak or eat. He thought that the eyes of portraits followed him wherever he went, and that a clock could tell his master about anything Equiano did wrong. Shocked by this culture, Equiano tried washing his face in an attempt to change its colour.[12]

Pascal took Equiano with him when he returned to England, and had him accompany him as a valet during the Seven Years' War with France. Also trained in seamanship, Equiano was expected to assist the ship's crew in times of battle; his duty was to haul gunpowder to the gun decks. Pascal favoured Equiano and sent him to his sister-in-law in Great Britain, so that the youth could attend school and learn to read and write.

At this time, Equiano converted to Christianity. He was baptized in St Margaret's, Westminster, on February 1759. His godparents were Mary Guerin and her brother, Maynard, who were cousins of his master Pascal. They had taken an interest in him and helped him to learn English. Later, when Vassa's origins were questioned after his book was published, the Guerins testified to his lack of English when he first came to London.[4] Despite some special treatment, after the British won the war, Equiano did not receive a share of the prize money, as was awarded to the regular crew. Pascal had promised his freedom, but did not release him.[citation needed]

Pascal sold Equiano to Captain James Doran of the Charming Sally at Gravesend, from where he was transported back to the Caribbean, to Montserrat, in the Leeward Islands. There he was sold to Robert King, an American Quaker merchant from Philadelphia who traded in the Caribbean) .....

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