yr9_Olaudah_Equiano

=Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa =  

**My Background[[image:celebrating7.jpg width="296" height="318" align="right"]]**
My name is Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa I was born in what is now Nigeria in 1745. As a child I was kidnapped and sold into slavery. I was taken to the new world and became a slave for a captain in the royal navy before then becoming a slave for a Quaker Merchant. After much saving and trading I was able to buy my freedom. I traveled to world from the Caribbean to the Mediterranean. Before then coming to London where I published my autobiography “//The interesting narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African” // in 1789. I then became involved in the abolition of the Slave Trade.



**How I helped to Abolish the Slave Trade**
I helped to get the slave trade abolished in the following sorts of ways. Well firsts of all there was my autobiography about my years as a salve; which was funded by abolitionists. And that had a lot of influence of those who read it and helped to further the anti-slavery cause. Most people that read my book where moved and became shammed that they had not yet joined the abolitionist cause, so this influenced them to join. I also gave lectures to the pubic in preparation for my book and these lectures where promoted by such people as the Countess of Huntingdon. But, one of the main things I think that helped the abolishment of the Slave trade was the turning of the Lawmakers (or legislators) in Britain and I had a large part in influencing them. (A legislator is a politician often elected by the public; who has the power to write and pass laws for example the abolishment of the slave trade).

**Why my Contributions were so Important**
I think my contributions were particularly important because without me the Lawmakers would not have turned against the slave trade and it would not have been abolished. And without me no one would have known what it would have been like to be a slavebecause I was the first African to publish a book in England.