Adam Hochschild?s recently published book, Bury the Chains, is all set to depict a fascinating account of the anti-slavery movement in the British empire, right from the beginning when Thomas Clarkson and his twelve ?determined? friends sat down in a printing shop, in the late afternoon of 22 May 1786, not far away from today?s Bank underground station in London, to launch one of the most effective social movements of all times. The book places a lot of focus on the soul stirring role played by a phalanx of abolitionist campaigners. Besides Clarkson, the movement included famously known people like Granville Sharp, Thomas Hardy and William Wilberforce whose sterling contributions to the anti-slavery movement have been popularised as an epic struggle. Yet, in the history of slavery, little is known of Olaudah Equiano. Mr Hochschild, a journalist, does not relegate Equiano to oblivion. He weaves a broad tapestry of Equiano?s life, putting him on the same, if not on a higher pedestal, as his other characters. Captured when he was a boy in a south-eastern village in ancient Nigeria, and sold as a slave, Equiano achieved an extraordinary feat that was hardly imaginable: he bought his freedom in 1766, went about learning to read and write in the English language and wrote his autobiography that topped the best seller charts in Britain at a time when writers like Daniel Defoe and Jonathan Swift reigned supreme. Equiano?s autobiography fueled the campaign of the British abolitionists. It gave the campaign a new dimension by whipping up public conscience. Here was a former slave seized from Africa giving a chilling first hand account of life enmeshed in slavery, sending a cold shiver down the spines of his readers.

Born in 1745, Olaudah Equiano was also known by the name of Gustavus Vassa. He was a boy of ten when one day, his parents having gone out to work leaving him and his ?dear? sister at home, black slave raiders ?two men and a woman got over our walls, seized us and without giving us time to cry out, or make resistance, stopped our mouths and ran off with us into the wood?..? They were force-marched for more than a month with tied hands to a village on the Nigerian coast where they were sold to an African dealer who in turn sold Equiano separated from his sister to an English slave ship.

When he was taken on board the slave ship, it was Equiano?s first acquaintance with white people. He had never seen a white man before and seeing so many of them ?red-faced with wild, long hair, gripped him with fear and he fell down unconscious. The sight of a large cauldron on the deck made him think that he was to be thrown in the cauldron and eaten up by these ?savages.?

Equiano?s ship with its human cargo then ploughed across the Atlantic on its way to the British colony of Barbados. For Equiano, it was a journey to the unknown. The ship was so crammed, he wrote, that there was hardly room to turn around; the suffocating heat inside produced copious perspiration and filthy air and the smell of vomit and faeces stuck like glue, besides the shrieks and groans of the dying produced a scene of horror. Many in utter despair tried to jump overboard into the sea but when caught in the act were flogged unmercifully for attempting to prefer death to slavery.

When the ship arrived in Barbados, merchants and planters came on board ?to examine us attentively.? The slaves were then divided in wholesale lots and sold. Equiano by chance escaped being cast in the lots. He was young boy, weak and sick and nobody wanted to have him. So, a slave merchant ordered that he should be given ?plenty of rice and fat pork? to fatten him up for buyers. He was then sold to a planter in Virginia. There an officer of the Royal Navy, Michael Pascal, bought him to serve as his personal slave. As it was typical of slave owners to change the original names of their slaves and give them new ones in order to demonstrate the total control they had over their possession, Pascal changed Equiano?s name into that of Gustavus Vassa, after the sixteenth century Swedish nobleman who led a revolt against Danish rule and crowned himself as the king of the Swedish people. Was it an irony of fate that Equiano was to become one of the leaders of the abolitionist movement in London to free the blacks from servile bondage?

With Lieutenant Pascal, Equiano went on naval expeditions during the period of Anglo-French rivalry and was entrusted with the task of running supplies of gunpowder whenever firing took place at sea. He was also cutting the hair of sailors and shaving them, thus earning pocket money. Having endeared himself to the crew by his gentle manner, Equiano was beginning to command the English language quite well, an achievement that was a key to his survival during those tough times.

In London, Pascal?s relatives were so fascinated by Equiano?s intelligence that they helped him with basic education, sent him to school and took him to attend church, an opportunity denied to slaves.

<I>Equiano himself published the book which came out in eight editions during his life time. He went on a tour of England, Wales Ireland and Scotland sponsored by the abolisionists, giving lectures and promoting his book. </I>

But Pascal knew that it was not legal to keep somebody as a slave on British soil. This had been confirmed by the verdict pronounced by Judge Mansfield in the Somerset case. Equiano was sold to Robert King, a rich merchant of the Caribbean island of Montserrat, who instead of sending him on the sugar plantations, gave him a job as a clerk in his warehouse. He was also serving as seaman on King?s ships plying in the West Indies.

It was as a seaman that Equiano developed an entrepreneurial flair for business encouraged by a ?friendly Captain, Thomas Farmer.? He bought goods at different ports on voyages and sold them back in Montserrat, making ?300 percent profit?.

It was with the money gained from business that Equiano was able to fulfill a long cherished dream, buying his freedom. Buying freedom was just like buying a property as a deed had to be drawn, the buyer and seller had to sign it and have it registered in the presence of an officer of the Register?s office.

One day in 1766, when Captain Farmer and the wealthy merchant Robert King were having breakfast together, Equiano approached his master, King, with his heart full of fear but knowing that Captain Farmer would support him, took the initiative by asking to purchase his freedom. ? What!?, exclaimed King. ?Give you your freedom? Why? Where did you get the money?? asked King. Equiano replied he got the money ?very honestly.? Captain Farmer then nodded in approval that Equiano got the money honestly and ?with much industry?. Putting his hand on the shoulders of Robert King, Farmer said, ?Come Robert, I think you must let him have his freedom.? King then pleasantly expressed his astonishment saying he did not know his slave Equiano was making money much faster than he was doing!

What was left to Robert King to do then was to bow to the request of Equiano. He took the forty pounds laid out by the slave to him and instructed the Register?s office to draw up the manumission deed. Equiano could scarcely believe he was awake. ?My imagination was all rapture as I flew to the Register?s office,? he wrote. ?The words of my master were like a voice from heaven to me; in an instant all my trepidations were turned into unutterable bliss: and I bowed myself with gratitude, unable to express my feelings, but by the overflowing of my eyes, and a heart replete with thanks to God while my true and worthy friend the Captain congratulated me with heartfelt pleasure.?

To everyone he met, Equiano expressed his happiness and extolled the virtue of Robert King and Captain Farmer. But though Equiano had now become a registered freeman, he did not feel safe in the West Indies. He travelled back to London ?where my heart had always been, where the British did not sell one another, as we did, and where I was astonished at the wisdom of the white people in all things I saw?.? He was proud to present himself as an ?estimable black Englishman?.

Returning from a scientific expedition to the North Pole as a member of a ship?s crew in the hope of exploring a passage to India, Equiano became actively engaged in the abolitionist movement in which he was an influential member along with prominent names like Wilberforce, Sharp, Clarkson and Hardy. He wrote his autobiography, recreating his own experience of the life of a slave.

His book ?The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa the African? appeared in 1789. Equiano said his book was meant to promote the ?interests of humanity?, that is , to show to the world that the blacks were human beings like the European whites and were not inferior. Many viewed his autobiography as political propaganda during the anti-slavery campaign which gathered steam with the development of the British postal services in the 1780s. This in turn led to the coming into existence of an ever increasing number of newspapers prompted by a new culture in Britain: newspaper reading. More than seven hundred copies of the first edition of ?The Interesting Narrative?? were sold out as soon as they were placed in the book shops. People ordered copies by paying half the book?s price in advance, thereby financing the printing costs of the book much to the relief of Equiano.

Equiano himself published the book which came out in eight editions during his life time. He went on a tour of England, Wales Ireland and Scotland sponsored by the Abolitionists , giving lectures and promoting his book with an impressive list of subscribers which included MPs, dukes, earls, university professors, the vice-chancellor of Cambridge university and why not on the VIP list the name of the ?. Prince of Wales! Everybody was amazed when he got access to the prince, a great supporter of the slave trade, and sold him his book.

During one of his tours in 1792, he met Susanna Cullen, an English lady, whom he married at Soham, in Cambridgeshire, ?in the presence of a vast number of people assembled on the occasion.? His tours were most of the time covered by the press. When he reached Edinburgh, for example, a newspaper reported, ?Gustavus Vassa, with his white wife, is at Edinburgh.?

Equiano was also actively engaged in the London Corresponding Society, England?s first working class radical organization which militated for reforms and the introduction of universal male suffrage. Members of the Society were often arrested for sedition and imprisoned. Thomas Hardy, the fiery Secretary of the Society, for example, was held in the Tower of London and charged with high treason. Hardy was close to Equiano and referred to him as ?my friend Gustavus Vassa, the African? when writing letters.

<I>He was young boy, weak and sick and nobody wanted to have him. So, a slave merchant ordered that he was given ?plenty of rice and fat pork? to fatten him for buyers. He was then sold to a planter in Virginia. </I>

Equiano died on 31 March, 1797 without actually witnessing the abolition of slavery. He left an estate worth £950 (equivalent to £ 100,000 today) for his surviving daughter, Johanna. His wife and a daughter, Anna Maria, had died a couple of years earlier.

Olaudah Equiano was an example of the vast potential black Africans possessed. Slavery only denied them the chance to show their talents and intellectual brilliance.

<B>Anand MOHEEPUTH</B>