IGBO HISTORY: Olaudah Equiano was the first black abolitionist and a renowned writer.
At the age of 11, He was captured by slave traders from his hometown in Isseke, present day Anambra State and sold into bondage to the British colony of Virginia. He was given the name Gustavus Vassa by one of his many owners, and was forced to serve several masters, among them was a British Naval officer Whom he traveled between four continents with. These journies helped him to produce the most popular and vivid slave narrative of his era. He purchased his freedom in the year 1777 at the age of 32, after having mastered reading, writing and arithmetic. He settled in England, and soon became a leader of the emerging anti-slavery movement. He presented one of the first petitions to the British Parliament calling for the abolition of slavery. In 1787, He became the first person of African ancestry to hold a post in the British Government when he was appointed to the post of Commissary for Stores to the Expedition for Freed Slaves. This venture created the country...