Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka, an Igbo village in the kingdom of Benin, in 1745. His father was one of the province's elders. When he was about eleven, Equiano was kidnapped by a group of slave traders and after six months of captivity was brought to the coast where he encountered white men for the first time.
Sold to slave-traders, Equiano was transported to Barbados. After a two-week stay in the West Indies Equiano was sent to the English colony of Virginia. He was later purchased by Captain Henry Pascal, a British naval officer. Under this master, who owned Equiano for the next se…
