The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, the African

Equiano’s captors were not able to find a buyer for him in Barbados, so he ended up in a household in Virginia. There, Equiano had enough to eat but was frequently fearful as he saw an enslaved woman walking around with her mouth muzzled. He describes how mystified he was by common objects like a portrait and a watch. He took special note of books in his master’s library; he attempted to get one of these books to talk to him, but he gave up when the book failed to talk back to him. Equiano was then sold to Captain Pascal, who served in the British Royal Navy. Once aboard Pascal’s ship, Equiano was christened with the name “Gustavus Vassa,” despite his desire to continue going by the name Jacob, given to him by his previous owner.

Over the course of two years, Equiano traveled the Atlantic aboard several ships as his owner fought during the Seven Years’ War between England and France. During these years, he went from fearing the English and colonists and thinking of them as magicians to seeing them as ordinary people with some mastery of technology. He made a lifelong friendship with Richard Baker, who explained with great patience the many oddities of life aboard ship and among the English.