Olaudah Equiano
vers 1745-1797 18th century
Freedom wrested from injustice, and Providence discerned in the smallest ordeal.
Who was Olaudah Equiano?
Kidnapped as a child in present-day Nigeria and sold into slavery, he crossed the Atlantic in the holds, served at sea, learned to read and finally bought his own freedom. Settled in England, he published in 1789 the narrative of his life, a bestseller that became a decisive weapon of the abolitionist movement. In it he reads each ordeal as carried by a Providence he learns to discern everywhere.
In their own words
I early accustomed myself to look for the hand of God in the minutest occurrence, and to learn from it a lesson of morality and religion.
O, ye nominal Christians, might not an African ask you, learned you this from your God, who says unto you, Do unto all men as you would men should do unto you?
I who had been a slave in the morning, trembling at the will of another, was become my own master, and completely free.