The youngest son of a village leader, Equiano was born among the Ibo people in the kingdom of Benin, along the Niger River. He was the favorite of his mother." His family expected to follow in his father's footsteps and become a chief, an elder, a judge. Slavery was an integral part of the Ibo culture, as it was with many other African peoples. His family owned slaves, but there was also a continual threat of being abducted, of becoming someone else's slave. Unfortunately this is what happened, one day, while Equiano and his sister were at home alone. Two men and a woman climbed over the walls of the house and captured the children. Several days later Equiano and his sister were separated. Equiano continued to travel farther and farther from homeexchanging masters along the way. Equiano's early experiences

as a slave were not all disagreeable; some families treated Equiano almost as a part of the family. Essaka was shipped to Barbados and later Virginia, where he was bought by his first master, Mr. Campbell. In Virginia he was given the name Jacob. In Virginia he was giving the tasks were weeding grass, and gathering stones in the plantation. He also dwelled in the house of his master to fan him, soon after his master fell asleep and Jacob continued his state of fanning until his master woke. While in the house Jacob was astonished and shocked by many things he had never seen before. One thing that he saw a black woman slave who was cooking dinner who wore an iron muzzle locked on her mouth, which kept her from speaking, eating and drinking. After working for Master Campbell for a few weeks the master sold him to Captain Michael Henry Pascal, a past lieutenant in the royal navy, who now commanded a merchant trading ship called the Industrious Bee. When Jacob arrived on the coast, saw a slave ship. He now saw himself deprived of all chance of returning to his native country. He realized he would be carried to the white people’s country to work them. While on the ship he witnessed brutal cruelty not only shown towards blacks, but also to some of the whites themselves. As it was for all slaves, the Middle Passage for Equiano was a long, arduous nightmare. In his autobiography he describe

Some topics in this essay:
Niger River, Passage Equiano, Jacob Virginia, Provisions Stores, Guinea Africa, Robert King, Unfortunately London, Bee Jacob, England Vasa, Susanna Cullen, slave trade, equiano sister, master campbell,