Who was Equiano? How might his background have influenced what he wrote about the Middle Passage?

The Life of Olaudah Equiano is his autobiography. The narrator of the autobiography, Equiano is an educated, intelligent, and ambitious former slave who intends to showcase the horrors of the slave trade in order to spur on the abolitionist cause. Equiano claimed he was born in Africa, but recent scholarship suggests he was born in South Carolina. Regardless, Equiano was sold to European slave traders, shipped to America and the West Indies, and purchased by a lieutenant, Michael Henry Pascal, in the Royal Navy. Equiano accompanied Pascal on his adventures during the Seven Years' War until he was sold to a Quaker merchant, Robert King. Equiano was ultimately able to secure enough money to purchase his freedom. After manumission, he traveled the world as a sailor and a steward, and even worked as an overseer on a Jamaica plantation for a time. Once he settled in England, he married and became involved in the abolitionist movement. Equiano was extremely religious, and ultimately converted to Methodism. He revealed himself to be an industrious and capable leader, thereby shattering racial stereotypes of the time. Middle Passage explores similar themes of freedom and slavery.

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