Jacqueline MartinezVanessa Estella

Early Life

Education

Family LifeMarriage

Accomplishment

Death

Olaudah Equiano was born in 1745 into the Ibo tribe in present-day Nigeria. At the age of eleven, he was kidnapped by slave traders, and spent the next ten years as a slave in Virginia, the West Indies, and the British navy. Purchased by a Quaker merchant, he was permitted to buy and sell goods on his own, and he saved enough money to buy his freedom at the age of twenty-one.

As a free man, Equiano became active in the growing antislavery movements of England and America. In 1789, he published his autobiography, in which he made both moral and economic cases for ending slavery. Presenting himself as an ordinary man who had not deserved to be enslaved, he made his life a compelling argument for abolition.

Joanna Vassa (1795-1857) was the only

surviving descendant of author and leading anti-slavery campaigner, Olauhad Equiano, who is also known as "Gustavus Vassa, the African".

Joanna's early life was tragic. In 1796, only a year after her birth, her English mother, Susannah Cullen of Fordham, Cambridgeshire, died, and was buried at St Andrew's Church, Soham. In the following year, her famous West African father Equiano died in London (31st March 1797, aged 52), and this was shortly followed by the death of her elder sister and only sibling Anna Maria (b.1793), on 21st July.

Susannah died in February 1796 aged 34, and Equiano died a year after that on March 31, 1797 aged 52. Soon after, the elder daughter died, aged four years old, leaving Joanna to inherit Equiano's estate, which was valued at £950: a considerable sum, worth approximately £100,000 today. Joanna married the Rev. Henry Bromley, and they ran a Congregational Chapel at Clavering near Saffron Walden in Essex , before moving to London in the middle of the nineteenth century. They are both buried at the Congregationalists ' non-denominational Abney Park Cemetery , in Stoke Newington

Equiano's most important work was his autobiography, The Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa which became a best seller. He published nine different editions before his death in 1797; including an American edition (1791), and German and Dutch editions, 1790 and 1791 respectively.

At some point, after having travelled widely, Equiano decided to settle in Britain and raise a family. Equiano is closely associated with SohamCambridgeshire where, on 7 April 1792, he married Susannah Cullen, a local girl, in St Andrew's Church. The original marriage register containing the entry for Equiano and Susannah is today held by Cambridgeshire Archives and Local Studies at the County Record Office in Cambridge.He announced his wedding in every edition of his autobiography from 1792 onwards, and it has been suggested his marriage mirrored his anticipation of a commercial union between Africa and Great Britain. The couple settled in the area and had two daughters, Anna Maria, born 16 October 1793, and Joanna, born 11 April 1795.Susannah died in February 1796 aged 34, and Equiano died a year after that on 31 March 1797, aged approximately 52. Soon after, the elder daughter died, aged four years old, leaving Joanna to inherit Equiano's estate, which was valued at £950: a considerable sum, worth approximately £100,000 today. Joanna, married the Rev. Henry Bromley,

This map shows the route of Equiano's many travels throughout his long career at sea. It clearly demonstrates that he was unusually well-travelled for his time.

Death

Although Equiano's death is recorded in London, 1797, the location of his burial is unsubstantiated. One of his last London addresses appears to have been Plaisterer's Hall in the City of London (where he drew up his will on 28 May 1796).

Family Life

Accomplishment

Death

Life of Olaudah Equiano, written by Himself ,

Published edit ion of 1789. “ “Narrative of the Life of Olaudah

Equiano, Written by Himself .(1789) ,Electronich text, At

http:/www. Olauhad Equiano, The African -200 th Anniversary