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Home / People / Olaudah Equiano

Historical person

Olaudah Equiano

c. 1745–1797

Equiano's 1789 autobiography states that he was born in the Igbo region of West Africa, kidnapped as a child and transported through the Atlantic slave system. He was given the name Gustavus Vassa, served several owners and purchased his freedom in 1766.

He subsequently worked as a sailor, merchant and campaigner in Britain. Equiano’s autobiography and public campaigning made him one of the best-known Black voices in the British movement to abolish the slave trade. Olaudah Equiano was born in Essaka in the Igbo region, as stated in his autobiography and died in London.

In Julia Golding’s Cat Among the Pigeons, Her investigation moves between Drury Lane, Bow Street and Britain's growing abolition movement, where Olaudah Equiano offers a documented example of resistance and self-emancipation.

Series

Historical novels and book series featuring Olaudah Equiano (1 series)

Cat Royal in Order

by Julia Golding 6 books 4.2(12,398)

The Cat Royal series follows an orphan raised behind the scenes at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, from Georgian London into revolutionary Paris, the Atlantic world, Jamaica and industrial Scotland. Cat's work among actors, apprentices, aristocrats and street gangs repeatedly places her beside crimes and political conflicts that…

All books in this series