H) Equiano

Summary

Olaudah Equiano wrote an important book saying he was born in Africa in 1745, in a place that’s now called Nigeria. Eqiuano played an important role in the fight for the abolition of the slave trade. Having lived as an enslaved African himself, he had first-hand experience of what the conditions of slavery were like and wanted to do something to change this. Equiano came to live in Cambridgeshire much later in his life, when he married his wife Susanna Cullen in Soham, in 1792. They had two children, Anna Maria and Joanna. Anna Maria’s memorial stone can be found on the side of St Andrew’s Church in Chesterton.

Story

This history trail is narrated by the poet Michael Rosen, with script researched by Helen Weinstein and the team at Historyworks. This recording is part of a series of Cambridge history trails which have lyrics inspired by 'history beneath our feat' performed by local schoolchildren, with poems by the top poet Michael Rosen and songs by the funny team at CBBC's songwriters commissioned by Historyworks. 

To find the teacher resources including powerpoints and laminates click here. 

Cambridge was once home to two of the most prominent campaigners against the Transatlantic Slave Trade. Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797), who was an African, campaigned alongside Thomas Clarkson (1760-1846), from Wisbech. They were both early activists, just as important as William Wilberforce in the struggle against slavery. They devoted their lives to the cause and were pivotal in the Bill of 1807, which abolished the Slave Trade in Britain and British territories.  Equiano was an ardent campaigner.  He was important to Wilberforce and Clarkson, as a former enslaved African, being a source of eye-witness accounts about the horrific experience of being kidnapped as a child in Africa and trafficked to the Americas. Equiano was bought and sold many times, buying his freedom from a sympathetic Quaker, when he became literate, moved to England. Equiano married a local woman in Soham, and lived for a while with his family in Chesterton. His daughter, Anna Maria, was buried there in St Andrews Churchyard in 1797 and you can still see her memorial. Equiano wrote a Memoir to publicise his story and to raise money for the abolitionist cause. However, it took longer to abolish slavery and trafficking.  Owning another human was not made illegal until 1837.