Olaudah Equiano

Biography

Born a prince in what is now south-eastern Nigeria, Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped at the age of eleven and sold into the transatlantic slave trade. He endured the Middle Passage — the horrific sea crossing from Africa to the Americas — and spent years in servitude under various masters in the Caribbean, Virginia, and at sea.

Through extraordinary determination and resourcefulness, Equiano earned enough money trading on his own account to purchase his freedom in 1766. He settled in London and dedicated the rest of his life to the campaign for the abolition of the slave trade.

The Sheffield Visit

In August 1790, Equiano visited Sheffield as part of his book tour promoting The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. His visit was arranged by the Reverend Thomas Bryant, a local Methodist minister who understood the power of personal testimony.

He was hosted by Joseph and Elizabeth Read at Wincobank Hall — radical thinkers and committed abolitionists. Their daughter, Mary Anne Rawson, would later found the Sheffield Ladies Association for the Universal Abolition of Slavery and attend the inaugural World Anti-Slavery Convention in 1840.

The thread from Equiano's visit to this hillside in 1790 runs directly to the abolition of slavery across the British Empire in 1833.

The Wesley Connection

John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, was profoundly influenced by Equiano's autobiography. It is said that Wesley was reading it on his deathbed in February 1791. Days later, he wrote what would be his final letter — to a young William Wilberforce, urging him to continue the fight against slavery.

This letter connected Equiano's pen to Wesley's conscience to Wilberforce's campaign. The route you walk passes through the landscape where all three threads converge.

The Campaign for Abolition

Equiano co-founded the Sons of Africa, a group of prominent Africans living in Britain who campaigned for abolition. He worked alongside Granville Sharp and the Committee for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, providing crucial testimony and challenging public indifference.

His autobiography, published in 1789, was one of the first widely-read accounts of slavery written by a formerly enslaved person. It went through nine editions in his lifetime and was translated into Dutch, German and Russian. It changed minds, raised funds, and gave the abolitionist movement a human face.

Legacy

Equiano married Susannah Cullen of Soham, Cambridgeshire in 1792. They had two daughters: Anna Maria and Joanna. He died on 31 March 1797, ten years before the Slave Trade Act of 1807 finally outlawed the British slave trade, and 36 years before the Slavery Abolition Act of 1833 freed enslaved people across the Empire.

His legacy endures in the route you are walking — a landscape that remembers his visit, honours his courage, and connects his story to the wider movement that changed the world.

Key Dates