Olaudah equiano biography autobiography anchor

Primary Sources

(1) Olaudah Equiano, letter to Gordon Turnbull after the publication of his book Apology for Negro Slavery, in the Public Advertiser published on 5th February, 1788.

To kidnap our fellow creatures, however they may differ in complexion, to degrade them into beasts of burthen, to deny them every right but those, and scarcely those we allow to a horse, to keep them in perpetual servitude, is a crime as unjustifiable as cruel; but to avow and to defend this infamous traffic required the ability and the modesty of you and Mr.

Tobin. Can any man be a Christian who asserts that one part of the human race were ordained to be in perpetual bondage to another.

(2) Olaudah Equiano, The Life of Olaudah Equiano the African (1789)

I was born, in the year 1745, in a charming fruitful vale, named Essaka.

The distance of this province from the capital of Benin and the sea coast must be very considerable; for I had never heard of white men or European