Equiano's World

ESTABLISHING CONTEXT

Establishing context is important in understanding the significance of Equiano's World and the role that Gustavus Vassa played in the abolition movement. Vassa's autobiography does not always clearly establish context, and sometimes his own misunderstandings cloud an appreciation of his own evolution as an intellectual and political activist. Vassa's rendition of the notorious "Middle Passage" has to be understood in context, for example. Similarly, Vassa's exploration of different religions is worthy of reflection, while his role in the abolition movement has spawned an important scholarly literature. That Vassa's slavery overlapped with the Seven Years War requires an understanding of where he was and when, and the impact that his risky adventures had on him. His role in the first Sierra Leone colonization scheme and his importance in the abolition movement also require some discussion. Finally, Vassa's involvement in the radical politics of London in the early 1790s help to establish the context in which his autobiography was received.

Context

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The Bight of Biafra and the Atlantic

The Slave Trade of the Late 18th Century

Vassa's Middle Passage

The Seven Years War

The British Americas

London in the Late 18th Century

The Abolition Movement

Britain in the Late 18th Century

Denmark and the Slave Trade

The Slave Trade of the Late 18th Century

Approximately four million Africans were shipped from the African coast as slaves from the time the young Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped in 1753 in the interior of the Bight of Biafra to 1807, when the British Government abolished the trans-Atlantic slave trade for its national ships. Thus abolition was not enacted until ten years after his death in London as abolitionist Gustavus Vassa. The Bight of Biafra accounted for almost 16 percent of the Africans enslaved across the Atlantic in this period, which was about 682,000 men, women and children. Among the relatively few voices that have survived from this period, Vassa's memoirs stand out because of the wealth of detail that he provides, his inordinate personal life experiences, and his amazing achievements, especially in the poignant and masterfully written autobiography. He represents only one unique voice whose unusual experiences under slavery were hardly representative of what happened in the overwhelming personal trajectories of those who crossed the Atlantic in slave ships between 1750 and British abolition in 1807. Estimates for the various coastal regions from where people embarked on slave ships distinguishes the Bight of Biafra, where Bonny and Calabar accounted for the great majority of departures, and largely on British ships in this period. The percentage for any of the regions may have been more since the African origins of approximately 13 percent of the total number of people who were transported is not known. By comprison, more than a third of known departures during this period came from west central Africa and southeastern Africa, which was double the number from the Bight of Biafra.

Departures from Africa for the Americas, 1751–1810
Source: Voyages: The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Database, www.slavevoyages.org.

The known number of individuals taken from the Bight of Biafra in 1753 is estimated at 5,854, although the ports of origin for many other slaves in this year are unknown and might increase the actual total for the Bight of Biafra.

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REFERENCES

This webpage was last updated on 2025-03-06 by Paul Lovejoy

Stowage of the British slave ship Brookes under the regulated slave trade act of 1788. Plymouth Chapter of the Society for Effecting the Abolition of the Slave Trade (1788), United States Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division, Washington.

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