How Abolitionist Olaudah Equiano Used Rum To Fuel His Freedom

illustration of olaudah equiano
Via Wikimedia Commons
Briona Lamback
July 11, 2023

Olaudah Equiano was doing what eleven-year-olds do: play and spend time with family and friends until colonizers kidnapped him from his home in present-day Nigeria. He was enslaved, but the incredible part of his story is how he got free.

Equiano was taken to Barbados, then Virginia, and finally was sold to a London ship captain. Along the way, he learned to read, realized his natural knack for writing, and knew his story was worth telling. 

He became a best-selling author, abolitionist, and traveler. But there’s even more to his freedom story.

While in Barbados, Equiano learned the ways of the land. With dozens of sugar plantations, Barbados was a rum-making hub, and Equiano quickly learned the game. He took his talents to the UK, where he hustled as a trader selling barrels of rum. It took him three years to earn enough to purchase his freedom.

Equiano lived the soft life for the next twenty years, traveling the world. But he remembered his people and continued campaigning for Black liberation.

Capitalism will not free us, but using our talents to create new paths will.  Never sleep on yourself. How can you use the skills and resources you have right now to get closer to a liberated life?

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