THE AFRICAN SLAVE WHO CAN READ (a story about Olaudah Equiano)
By Michele Schafer -Links by: Amy Wilder and Kristin Wohrle
Olaudah, an eleven year old boy from Africa, was playing in the back yard of his home with his sister. They enjoyed playing together when his parents and older brothers weren't at home. Usually when their parents were gone there was someone as a lookout for kidnappers, but today no one was watching for danger.
Olaudah Equiano, the youngest son of the chief of the tribe in Benin, Africa, was born in 1745. Since he was the youngest, his mother spent a great deal of time preparing him for the future by teaching him to throw javelins and dress as a warrior. The children of this tribe needed to learn how to fight when they were young because of the potential of danger from the kidnappers. The kidnappers were people, men and women, from other tribes in the area that would take children while the parents were away working in the fields or hunting.
Today was one of those days, and before Olaudah and his sister know it, they were lifted from their feet. The kidnappers had jumped over the wall around the Equiano home and covered the children's mouths so they could not speak or yell for help. The three kidnappers, a woman and two men, took Olaudah and his sister to a nearby wood and tied their hands. They carried the children as far as they could, until they arrived at a small house where they ate. Olaudah and his sister could not eat because they were scared. Instead they fell asleep, hugging each other and crying.
The next day, they put Olaudah and his sister in a sack so people would not see them crying and they would not be able to get away. It was very hard when the kidnappers chose to separate Olaudah from his sister during the six months that he was traded among African natives. Olaudah cried and grieved for quite a while, not eating unless the food was shoved in his mouth. He was finally given to white slavers and loaded onto a slave ship headed toward Barbados.
Olaudah did not like the ride to Barbados very much because he was treated not like a person, but only cargo. The white men that were in charge of the ship stacked the slaves in the ship so that no one could move. The smells were so bad that the slaves had to get into the fresh air every once in a while or they would die. Olaudah did not eat very well on the ship, so the white men whipped him with a rope until he would eat. Some people did not like the trip across the Atlantic Ocean, so they decided to jump off the ship headed to America. Most of them drowned because they did not know how to swim. Olaudah saw a couple of the guys that were standing beside him jump over the side of the ship, preferring to die than to stay as a slave.
Once the ship made it to Barbados, Olaudah was sold at an auction to Michael Henry Pascal, a captain of a slave-trader ship and a lieutenant in the Royal Navy. Pascal changed his name to Gustavus Vassa, but his real name was still Olaudah. Because a slave trader owned Olaudah, he had many chances to travel to many countries. He saw France, Holland, North American and the Mediterranean. While he traveled, a tutor named Mrs. Gerin taught Olaudah how to read and write.
In 1762, Olaudah was sold to a Philadelphia Quaker named Robert King. King showed Olaudah how to purchase his freedom by using the money that he could earn while being a slave. When Olaudah was 21 years old, he received his manumission paper for the money he had raised. He then began working for Dr. Charles Irving. Olaudah married an English woman named Susanna Cullen in 1772.
Olaudah still remembered how much pain he had gone through as a child and wanted to write it all down on paper for the world to know. Olaudah started by writing about his childhood at the tribe, and continued through his capture by the tribesmen and his trip on the slave ship. He wrote everything down so that everyone would be able to understand how he had been treated and had felt as a slave. He did not know that his Narrative, written in English in 1789, would immediately become a sensation and remain a classic source of knowledge about the European slave trade for future generations. Olaudah Equiano died a free man in 1797, affecting so many lives through his own.
Comprehension Question Worksheet
1. How and Why was Olaudah captured?
2. Who taught Olaudah to read and write?
3. What do you think kept Olaudah alive while on the ship across the Atlantic Ocean?
4. If Olaudah was not captured that day at his home in the tribe, how would his life have been different?
5. How did Olaudah gain his freedom?
6. What was Olaudah new name? Why was it changed?
7. If you could have bought Olaudah, what would you have done with him?
Teaching Activities for "The African Slave Who Can Read" by Michele Schafer
Create a timeline of Olaudah's life. Write a paper telling how you would have felt if you were Olaudah. Create a model of a ship that would have allowed more room and cleaner air for the slaves.
Answers to Comprehension Questions
1. By Tribesmen while his parents were out working or hunting to be sold as a Slave
2. Mrs. Gerin
3. Several options. His youth, determination, …
4. Several options.
5. He raised money by being a slave and was helped by Robert King
6. Gustavus Vassa, because he was in Europe while on the slave ship
7. Several Options.
Outline of "The African Slave Who Can Read"
I. Olaudah, age eleven a. Kidnapped by tribesmen slave traders b. Separated from his sister c. Sold to white men d. Traveled to Barbados on a slave ship
II. Olaudah, age twelve to seventeen a. Bought by Michael henry Pascal b. Traveled on slave ships around the world c. Learned to read and write by Misses Gerin d. Changed name to Gustavus Vassa
III. Olaudah, age seventeen to twenty-three a. Bought by Robert King, a Quaker b. Purchased his freedom c. Worked for Dr. Charles Irving
IV. Olaudah, age twenty-four to forty-two a. Married Susanna Cullen, an English woman b. Wrote The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, The African. c. Died on March 31, 1797, a free man
Sources:
Internet: http://www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap2/equiano_bio_f97.html
http://vi.uh.edu/pages/mintz/3.htm
http://www.wsu.edu:8080/~wldciv/wo…er/world_civ_reader_2/equiano.html
Books: Landenburg, Thomas. The Black Man in the Land of Equality. Hayden Book Co. New York: 1969. Pages 4-7.