Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Man

This week, I want to recommend a wonderful resource by Luke Walker. He wrote Olaudah Equiano: The Interesting Man to highlight the life of a godly black Christian who has made an impact on the world. I hope this sampling of the book whets your appetite to pick up a copy! 
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A Boy In Bondage
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Olaudah Equiano was the first known writer of the atrocities of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade. His autobiographical writings chronicled his life from the moment he and his sister were kidnapped and enslaved to his days as an abolitionist and missionary. He was only eleven years old when he and his sisters were forcefully kidnapped. After this, he was separated from his sister and tossed back and forth amongst domestic slave owners before finally being carried across the Atlantic Ocean to America.

For a short time, he was enslaved in Virginia but was eventually purchased and taken to England. On his way, his name was changed to Gustavus Vassa (the name he would carry most of his life, until his autobiography revealed his birth name). Luke Walker, a biographer of Equiano, calls us to consider a painful reality: “Imagine being a child alone, socially isolated with no explanation given while horrors are carried out all around you. That is perhaps the most frightening aspect of all, the psychological terror of the ice-hearted cruelty of men”. (p. 10)

​Glimpses of Providence

A man by the name of Daniel Queen began to instruct Equiano in the scriptures, and this would lead to a passion and love for God’s Word in his life. His master, who should have freed him, instead sold him to another master, bringing Equiano to the West Indies. As he traveled under his new master Robert King and Captain Thomas Farmer, he chose not to run away because he trusted in God’s sovereign hand over his life (though he didn’t fully grasp who God was at the time). This integrity led to a relationship with Thomas Farmer that would ultimately change his entire life.

In God’s Providence, King advised him to pursue his freedom. He even gave Equiano sugar and rum to sell as he sought to purchase his freedom. Though God’s hand was with him, he experienced injustice in his trading with no legal support when fraudulent transactions occurred. Even worse, Equiano recounts the rape, iron muzzles, thumb screws, and other cruel methods used to punish and harm the slaves. Walker says, “I will not let the reader forget that these were real people, created imago dei (in the image of God)” (p. 17). He continues accurately, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles” because of such wickedness (Romans 2:24)!

“I wished to be as happy as them… this kind of Christian fellowship I had never seen, nor ever thought of seeing on earth; it fully reminded me of what I had read in the holy scriptures, of the primitive Christians who loved each other and broke bread.”

Things Are Changing

When Equiano earned enough money to buy his freedom, his master almost didn’t let him go. However, God’s hand was at work just as it was in the days of Joseph in Genesis and Thomas Farmer convinced King to let him go. After buying his freedom, he returned to England where he would use his appetite for learning to gain much knowledge and insight in music, mathematics, and other areas.

In some near-death experiences while traveling with Dr. Charles Irving strike a northern passage to India, Equiano realized that his soul was not free from the bondage of sin. After a season of seeking Catholicism, Quakerism, and Judaism, God opened a door for Equiano to hear the gospel from some sea-faring man he met. This man and his minister would show and speak of the impacts of the powerful gospel in their lives. Equiano writes that “I wished to be as happy as them… this kind of Christian fellowship I had never seen, nor ever thought of seeing on earth; it fully reminded me of what I had read in the holy scriptures, of the primitive Christians who loved each other and broke bread.” (p. 27)


Free At Last

On October 6, 1774, Equiano came across this life-changing verse of scripture: “there is no other name under heaven by which men must be saved” (Acts 4:12). It was then that Equiano “saw clearly with the eye of faith” that he was a wicked sinner, that Jesus died to pay for his sin, and that God’s invisible hand had been with him since he was 11 years old (p.29). Jesus and His Word became sweeter and greater to him than anything else on this earth. He was born again. The slave who had been released from the shackles of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was freed from the eternal shackles of sin and death!

After his conversion, the saints in London urged him to use his gifts as a sailor to spread the gospel. Several of his early missionary efforts were thwarted, but he eventually founded The Sons Of Africa and fought for the rights of blacks in Britain. Being an entrepreneur, he self-promoted his autobiography The Interesting Man to help his work in the abolition of slavery at a time when William Wilberforce and others were also fighting for the same cause.

The slave who had been released from the shackles of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade was freed from the eternal shackles of sin and death!

His Legacy Lives On

In 1792, Equiano married Susanna Cullen, a white woman. Like many of the early white abolitionists of his day, he desired to see society as a whole shaped by the freedom of all people. Olaudah and Susanna had two children before Susanna passed away in 1796 and Olaudah in 1797. In 1833,  the Slavery Abolition Act was passed by the British Parliament due in some part to Equiano’s life and work some 40 to 50 years prior. It would be another 30 years before slavery was abolished in the United States, but Equiano was undoubtedly aided in the “domino” effect that England’s abolition had in the United States (p. 38)

Though Christianity is often called a “White Man’s Religion”, men like Equiano prove that Christianity—and Reformed theology—are not inherently white or racist. Equiano was a Calvinist and his Calvinistic theology pervaded his views of humanity and our being made in God's image. There is an increasing animosity toward Reformed theology today, but Christians of all races would be wise to look back at men like Olaudah Equiano to be reminded that Biblical truth transcends the racial distinctions set up in any culture.

As you celebrate black history month, thank God for His sovereign hand in the lives of slaves who saw a corrupt form of Christianity but, more importantly, saw the true Savior in His glory. All things work together for those who love God. ​

​Two Christian men, one black and one white, had a major impact on the abolition of slavery in England. The common thread between Equiano and Wilberforce was a robust, Biblical, and Reformed theology of man’s dignity. Every free black person in America and England can be thankful for God’s Providential hand in the life of Olaudah Equiano. Equiano, like other black Christians from his day, can truly look back at all of his former masters and oppressors and say, “as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good, to bring it about that many people should be kept alive, as they are today” (Gen. 50:20). 

As you celebrate black history month, thank God for His sovereign hand in the lives of slaves who saw a corrupt form of Christianity but, more importantly, saw the true Savior in His glory. All things work together for those who love God.

*I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.