Following the Purchase of His Freedom

• Savannah Georgia

Visiting both while enslaved and following his emancipation, Savannah was the first voyage Equiano completed as a free man in service to King, the man who formerly owned him and from whom Equiano bought his freedom. There, he witnessed the particular violence of North America's domestic trade of enslaved people.

• Pall Mall, London, 1768

Pall Mall is where Equiano first became employed by Dr. Charles Irving in 1768 as a hair dresser. However, he did not initially work for him long given the small pay, and left for the sea in May of the same year.

• Izmir, or Smyrna, Turkey

Equiano traveled here while employed by a Captain John Jolly. Equiano was enamored with the 'ancient city'.

• Genoa, Italy, 1769

Equiano traveled here under the employ of Captain John Jolly. Though he characterizes the city as one of the most beautiful, he'd ever seen, Equiano states "all this grandeur was in my eyes disgraced by the galley slaves, whose condition both there and in other parts of Italy is truly piteous and wretched".

• Naples, Italy, 1769


• Porto or Oporto, Portugal, 1769

Equiano sailed in here in May 1769 on return from Turkey.

• London, England, 1771

In April, 1771 aboard the Grenada Planter, Equiano sailed back to the Caribbean under the employ of Captain William Robertson. Equiano describes the racism and vitriol of the white buyers he encountered in Barbados and Grenada, ranging from verbal abuse to physical threats and refusals to pay appropriately. In December 1771, Equiano again sailed from London, this time working for Captain David Watt on the ship Jamaica. Foreshadowed through the ship's own name, it was during this time Equiano made his first trip to Jamaica. Although Equiano described Jamaica as 'the most considerable of the West India islands', he particularly focuses upon the intensely cruel and inhumane treatment enslaved people faced.
In fact, although describing punishments such as being burned alive, torture methods involving hanging men from their wrists and so on, Equiano abstains from further description 'to relieve the reader by a milder scene of roguery'. Interestingly, Equiano additionally emphasises a sustained connection to African heritage, customs, and culture retained and incorporated within the varying African communities forced to live in Jamaica. The social makeup of Jamaica then reflects a contrast between the cultural, defiantly native practices of African peoples enslaved on the island and the white population whose contribution implies only cruel, unusual, and unchristian practices. Upon returning to London in May 1773, Equiano again sought employment with Dr. Irving.

• Shetland Islands, 1773

Equiano, employed by Dr. Charles Irving as an assistant aboard the HMS Racehorse, arrived at the Shetland Islands on June 11, 1773 as part of the Phipps Arctic expedition. the expedition aimed to determine a northeast passage to the Far East, which was ultimately unsuccessful.

• Southern Coast of Spitsbergen, Northern Norway

The Phipps expedition arrived here approximately June 15, 1773.

• 81 Degrees North

Although the longitude is unknown, Equiano and the Phipps Expedition made it about 81 degrees north longitude before the ships became stuck in ice.

• Deptford Dockyard, 1773

After freeing the HMS Racehorse and its companion ship, the HMS Carcass, from ice off the coast of Greenland, the failed Phipps expedition arrived at Deptford Dockyard on September 30, 1773.

• Cádiz, Spain, 1775

While traveling to various ports across Spain, Equiano began to seriously consider conversion to Christianity. While in Cádiz in particular, Equiano describes his relationship to the bible and its immense impact upon him.



• Málaga, Spain 1755

While in Málaga, Equiano visited the as-yet incomplete Málaga Cathedral. Following his recent conversion to Christianity, Equiano is appalled by bullfighting, considering its occurrence on Sundays 'the great scandal of Christianity'. Such descriptions further the notion of western or colonial nations active mishandling of religion despite its integral role in the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. Especially considering Equiano's personal assertion of Christianity as pure and moral, actions such as bullfighting on Sundays, although abhorrently less egregious than the trafficking and enslavement of African people, further engages a largely white, European and English speaking audience. If English speaking Christians could understand the sin of bullfighting, Equiano's narrative necessarily leads them toward greater notions of abolition, defining the slave trade as not simply unchristian, but an active manipulation of God's word.

• Kingston, Jamaica, 1775

Equiano's participation in the Trans-Atlantic slave trade following his own emancipation displays the inescapable economic and social complicity through international mercantile engagement. Equiano traveled to Jamaica numerous times as a merchant following his emancipation in 1766. Contrasting Equiano's usual means of income, he traveled with Dr. Irving to Jamaica in 1775 with the explicit purpose of purchasing enslaved people. As Equiano notes, "our vessel being ready to sail for the Musquito shore, I went with the Doctor on board a Guinea-man, to purchase some slaves to carry with us, and cultivate a plantation; and I chose them all my own countrymen." Irving intended to cultivate a plantation in what is present-day Nicaragua, convincing Equiano to join him.



• Mosquito Shore, 1776

Equiano was invited by Dr. Irving to travel with him to Mosquito Shore , arriving in January 1776 to aid in the cultivation of a plantation scheme Irving had developed on purchased land in both Jamaica and Mosquito Shore. Equiano's attempt at conversion alongside his geographic understanding of Mosquito Shore reveal his misunderstanding of both the native Miskitu people and adoption of a Christian sensibility critical of non-western cultural and religious practice. The plantation ultimately failed due to flooding and the capture of a merchant ship by the Spanish, and Equiano began working his way back to London in June 1776. Although critical and regretful of his willing participation in the slave trade, Equiano aided in the purchase of enslaved Igbo people in Kingston, Jamaica. Equiano's inverse participation in the international slave trade culminates largely in Mosquito Shore.

Although critical of the slave trade itself, Equiano does not criticise Irving's particular acts, instead commending his medical care of both indigenous Miskitu and 'his own slaves'. Reflected within his narrative, Equiano's assimilation within the west demanded a tenuous critique of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade that ironically upholds figures such as Irving as model ‘masters’ and friends to the previously enslaved. Although a real friend of Equiano’s, Irving’s position within the memoir softens critiques of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade through platforming Equiano’s proximity to English sensibility and education. Keeping in mind the audience of Equiano’s narrative, although Equiano asserts the evil intrinsic to the slave trade as a whole, he does not implicate individual perpetuations, profit and internalizations of the slave trade. In fact, Dr. Irving's actions actively counter the abusive, violent actions of other slave masters, as Equiano emphasizes Irving's benevolence toward the enslaved people he’s forced to work on his plantation.

• Soham, England

Where Equiano married Susanna Cullen on 9 April, 1793. Additionally, it's where his two daughters, Anna Maria and Joanna Vassa were born. Susanna Cullen passed away 20 February 20, 1796, in Soham.

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