1. Engraved portrait of , 1789 (frontispiece of The Olaudah Equiano, Interesting Narrative) a slave in Camden by Gene Adams

laudah Equiano slaves be reconciled with en- ( 1 7 4 5 - 9 7 ) , lightened 18th-century , also known as a country well advanced in sci- Gustavus Vassa, entific discovery and leading the lived at different technological developments of times in various parts of what is the early Industrial Revolution, Onow , and for a while and with a legal system that had in Holborn and Fitzrovia at ad- left feudalism and its depend- dresses in present-day Camden. ence on serfdom well behind? He first came to England in 1757 A famous commentator on the as a child, and he died in law, Sir William Blackstone, the in 1797, though much of his life first Vinerian Professor of Law was spent overseas, as a slave at , wrote in 1765 that in the or as a sailor “the spirit of liberty is so deeply aboard various English ships. By implanted in our [British] con- 1766 he had purchased his free- stitution and rooted even in our dom, but he had certainly been a very soil that a slave or negro slave in every legal sense of the the very moment he stands in word, and that should shock us; it England falls under the protection was, after all, only 240 years ago. of the laws and with regard to all natural rights becomes eo instante Slavery a freeman”.2 Certainly, by 1700 there in Georgian Britain were no white slaves in England. The idea that there might have There were no laws either allow- been ‘slaves’ in the area of ing or prohibiting slavery: they London known today as Camden would have been unnecessary, a America and had escaped. He The result of this decision brings one up short. At that time, pointless anachronism. Into that had then in 1769 been imprisoned was that some 15,000 slaves however, there were many black loophole came the evil commer- on a before being sent were discharged, their owners slaves in London, perhaps as cial practice of trading in slaves to the West Indies. Abolitionists concluding that the game was up. many as 10,000, though possibly abroad and of importing black including Granville Sharp (1735- It was assumed that “slavery was many fewer. Other concentra- servants enslaved and purchased 1813) served an order of habeas an institution not recognised by tions of black population were in under the barbarous foreign prac- corpus on the ship’s captain and English law and that the rights of Liverpool and Bristol, both cen- tices permitted in the Colonies eventually, on 22 June 1773, the a slave owner over his slave could tres of the notorious transatlantic and in America, and tolerated case came to court before Lord not be exercised in England”.3 Slave Trade, in which Africans here, with characteristic English Mansfield. He set Somersett free, The actual legal ending of the were transported from the West fudge and muddle, as respect for saying that: Slave Trade came about only in Coast of Africa to sugar planta- other people’s ‘property’. “... The slave departed and 1807, to be followed in 1834 by tions in the Caribbean. The slave refused to serve: whereupon he the abolition of slavery within the ships were operated by European Lord Mansfield’s was kept to be sold abroad. So British Empire. (In America abo- traders, many under the direction high an act of dominion must lition came some 30 years later in of chartered companies such judgement be recognised by the law of the 1865, and then only after a Civil as the Royal Africa Company, country where it is used. The War in which the question of slav- founded as early as Lord Mansfield was no revolu- power of the master over his ery played a major part although 1672. tionary. By 1772 he had been the slaves has been extremely dif- it was not initially the cause of the The total black population in Lord Chief Justice of the King’s ferent in different countries. The conflict.) the whole of 18th-century Britain Bench for 32 years, with a fine state of slavery is of such a na- is impossible to know. In 1772, intellect, and deeply conservative. ture, that it is incapable of being Equiano‘s just before his famous judgement He was aware that the slave trade introduced on any reasons, moral in favour of the runaway slave was exceedingly profitable to or political, but only by positive childhood James Somersett, Lord Mansfield, the country as a whole and was law, which preserves its force the Lord Chief Justice, stated that wary of interfering in a thriving long after the reasons, occasions abduction it might affect “14,000 or 15,000 economy. However, because of and time itself from whence it was Equiano’s autobiography — The men”.1 This estimate presumably his enlightened personal views created, is erased from memory. It Interesting Narrative of the Life related to slave ownership in as well as his legal expertise, he is so odious, that nothing can be of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Great Britain as a whole during found himself in a pivotal posi- suffered to support it, but positive Vassa, the African, Written by the latter third of the 18th century, tion, and eventually set in train law. Whatever inconvenience, Himself — was published in 1789. not only in London, and it would events that resulted in the ending there-fore, may follow from this In it Equiano (Fig 1), an African have represented less that O.2% of of not just the evil Slave Trade, decision I cannot say this case is by birth, describes his idyllic ear- the total population at that time. but ultimately of Slavery itself. A allowed or approved by the law of ly childhood in an Ibo village in How could this nevertheless black slave, James Somersett, had England; and therefore, the black what we call Nigeria. A favourite enormous ownership of black been brought to England from must be discharged.” older sister looked after him while Camden History Review Vol.29 (2005) their parents were away cultivat- London, wrote of his own similar who gave him as a present’ to his However, after some bad years ing the fields with other adults of childhood abduction experience: cousins the Misses Guerin, two Equiano, then aged about 21, pur- the village. One day both children “I must own, to the shame of my pious and kindly young ladies liv- chased his freedom for about £40, were abducted by neighbouring own countrymen, that I was first ing in London. Captain Pascal had on 10 July 1766. Within a year African slave dealers and sold to kidnapped and betrayed by some paid about £30 to purchase the boy he returned to England, which another village. They never saw of my own complexion, who in the West Indies, rescuing him he naturally regarded by then as or heard from their family again. were the first cause of my exile incidentally from the notoriously his home, as well as the land of (The modern reader must imagine and slavery; but if there were no brutal Plantations there. Equiano liberty despite his previous state a time and a place where there are buyers there would be no sellers.” then spent his formative years of slavery. no means of communication, and Of native African slave traders, in England as servant to Miss His account of how he being kidnapped to a neighbour- Cugoano adds: Elizabeth and Miss Mary Guerin, achieved his freedom — paid ing village, even if it was only 10 “These slave-procurers are a set who befriended him throughout for with money he had made in miles away from home, would be of as great villains as any in the his life, encouraging his educa- legitimate trading allowed by as bad as being taken 50 miles or world. They often steal and kid- tion, and his baptism in 1759 at St. a beneficent Quaker ‘owner’, more if you had no way of finding nap many more than they buy at Margaret’s Westminster, by which Robert King, and another English out where you were, and no way first... They sell them at internal time he was probably aged about seaman, Captain Thomas Farmer of sending a distress call to your borders in the African continent 13. In the baptismal record he is — is as moving as the descrip- own people.) Olaudah describes and so are seldom traced and described as aged 12 and “born tion of his previous betrayal by honestly the system of indigenous caught.... [They are] a species of in Carolina”, something which in Pascal. The fact that he remained African domestic slavery under African villain which are greatly the light of his own very detailed friendly with King and Farmer, which he was first abducted (aged corrupted, even viciated [sic] and convincing description of his and even subsequently worked 8 or 9 maybe). Although it was a by their intercourse with the African childhood, seems very with them, indicates not only the distressing experience for the two Europeans ...”. He goes on to unlikely. (One has to remember finer personal qualities of both young children, he makes it clear comment on methods of enticing that he had no record of the date ‘owner’ and ‘slave’, but also the that they did not suffer abuse or presumably naive victims by giv- or place of his birth and there fact that Equiano, like everybody ill treatment at the hands of sub- ing “gew-gaws and presents after are inevitably discrepancies in in those days, accepted that some sequent African slave owners. the same manner that East India such an account.) Between years form of slavery in society was These were often essentially do- soldiers are procured in Britain in domestic service, he intermit- inevitable. What they would all mestic situations in which young [!]“ 5 tently joined the crews of Captain have questioned was the shock- slaves served merely as compan- Such realities are being newly Pascal’s ships and so became an ing brutality of traders and of ions to the master’s children. He recognised by some African mu- experienced trained sailor by his some owners, rather than the differentiates them firmly from seums in their interpretaion of early twenties. existence of slavery itself. In his their hideous, brutalising later the transatlantic Slave Trade. In All ships of those days car- first plantation experience as a experiences as captives aboard Ghana, for example, the display ried a number of young boys little African child, still unable the notorious white-owned slave at Cape Coast Castle “... acknowl- aged from 13 upwards, training to speak English, Equiano had trader ships (Fig 2) that took them edges that slavery was not a new for Naval service as Midshipmen. recalled with horror that he had across the Atlantic to the West phenomena for Africa and that Young Equiano worked alongside seen “a black woman slave …and Indian plantations. It has to be forms of slavery had existed in the them, grew up and made friends the poor creature was cruelly admitted, however, that there was former Gold Coast region since and generally enjoyed the life. loaded with various kinds of iron a deplorable connection between the earliest trans-Saharan trade He was clearly a very intelligent machines; she had one particu- powerful African Kingdoms such caravans ... The Ghanaians are now boy and a valuable addition to larly on her head, which locked as the Asante, who traded in their keen that this more rounded story the crew. her mouth so fast that she could own flesh and blood, and the of the slave trade be told in their He served his master with scarcely speak; and could not eat degraded Europeans who parasiti- country”.6 obvious loyalty and trust in peace or drink.” Later in his Narrative he cally engaged in a horrendous ex- times and in battles against the comments again on such disgust- tension of this trade by trafficking Kindness French. Captain Pascal’s later ing practices, and others besides, helpless African people far from betrayal of Equiano by suddenly their native land and culture, and and betrayal selling him to a new owner in reducing them to chattels, purely 1762, breaking a previous prom- 2. Plan of a slave ship, and the for money. When Equiano first came to ise and allowing the shocked and Wedgwood medallion; from a 1788 Ottobah Cuguoano, a con- London in 1757 he was aged, he angry young man to be shipped leaflet of the Plymouth Committee of temporary African slave and thought, about 12. He was the back to the West Indian planta- Abolitionists (Bristol Museum postcard, fellow intellectual of Equiano in property of an English sea captain tions, makes painful reading. by permission of Bristol Record Office)

Camden History Review Vol.29 (2005) saying that it was “very common after that, Equiano confronted reached the North Pole, having stationed on ladders at windows particularly in St. Kitt’s, for the the Captain in Park, joined a scientific expedition outside, as the building was full: slaves to be branded with the ini- giving him, no doubt, a very conducted by Lord Mulgrave to “I saw this pious man exhort- tial letters of their master s name ... uncomfortable surprise. Later, try to dis≠cover the ‘North West ing the people with the greatest and on the most trifling occasions at the Misses Guerins’ house, Passage to India. Equiano ac- fervour and earnestness, and they were loaded with chains, and Equiano demanded from him his companied his then master, Dr sweating as much as ever I did often other instruments of torture share of ‘prize-money’ earned Irving the inventor of apparatus to while in slavery on Montserrat ... The iron muzzle, thumb-screws while in service of Captain Pascal convert salt water to fresh, which beach. I was very much struck Etc ...”. during various sea battles against was used on the voyage. and impressed with this; I thought the French. He failed to recover He returned to London and it strange I had never seen divines what was due to him, but his attempted to settle there. For exert themselves in this manner challenge indicates a brave man, a time he lodged in Coventry before, and was no longer at a loss and perhaps paradoxically reflects Court, Haymarket, training as a to account for the thin congrega- 3. The Baldwin’s Gardens area in a humane, and in some ways, hairdresser, but soon gave up this tions they preached to.” Although 1746 (Rocque’s map) fair society, notwithstanding the useful though not well rewarded Equiano may have been mistaken occupation and returned to what about the year,7 it is clear from his he could justifiably have called description that he saw and heard his ‘true profession’ — professional the remarkable Rev. Whitefield sailing. in the flesh and became- at tracted to his burgeoning form Spiritual of Evangelical Christianity, with its rousing emphasis on compas- transformation sion and charity towards the less fortunate. It was a decade when he was wrestling with his own personal Baldwin’s identity, trying to establish himself as a full member of his adopted Gardens, Holborn country, Britain, yet unable to give up connections with the West Most of Equiano’s times in Indies or his deeply ingrained London — which was most of his memories of his remote African life when not on board ship —were childhood. His gradual resolution spent in north London. The story of this problem was later helped of Equiano’s connection with by a firm religious commitment Camden (as we understand it to Methodist Christianity, at that now) is fragmentary, and difficult time still under the wing of the to follow, not least because he Church of England. Equiano s seems to have flitted around so experience of personal spiritual many different London lodgings. transformation and establishment We do know, however, that of himself as a Briton, although Equiano lived from 1787 to 1788 hugely complicated by his being at No.53 Baldwin’s Gardens, black, was not unique in the vast Holborn, using that address in British Empire where the problem letters to the press published at of identity, cultural and racial, that time. Baldwin’s Gardens lies or between the colony and the two blocks north of Holborn’s mother country, was familiar to main thoroughfare, then lined by millions of Britons, white as well bustling coaching inns, and off as black, and to their descendants Leather Lane, whose colourful who have learned to accept a street market still flourishes -to hybridised origin from which to day. Baldwin’s Gardens had been construct a stable self-identity a most unsavoury place in the In 1767, although a free man, 17th century, with a vague right Equiano was still working in of sanctuary from the law for various parts of the West Indies criminals and debtors; the com- and the nearby coast of America. poser Henry Purcell once took During this time he encountered all refuge there from his creditors. the racial prejudice for which the The street had improved by 1720, Deep South was so long notorious when Strype described it as “... well including discrimination against built and inhabited, especially mixed marriages and disallowing since new Buildings are raised of a black person’s word against on the north side, where there is Freedom stain upon its integrity from the that of a white in a court of law. a handsome open square but not creeping toleration of slavery. No He also suffered a number of yet finished”, shown as Baldwin’s Returning to London in 1767, doubt Equiano gave Pascal and violent physical attacks: his status Square on Rocque’s map of 1746 the young man, proud of his his disapproving female cousins as a freed slave actually attracted (Fig 3). The street later deterio- new status as a free man, went something to think about. attacks rather than protected him rated again, becoming once more straight back to his kind friends After spending the next ten from them. a haunt of criminals. The entire the Misses Guerin, finding them years engaged in commerce Equiano describes how, on a area was more or less flattened in “May’s Hill” (i.e. Maze Hill), and sailing, during which time trading voyage to Philadelphia in during World War II, and the site Greenwich. They were apparently Equiano also made some return (he says) 1766, he witnessed the of No.53 is now covered by the as delighted to see him as he they, trips to the West Indies, he trav- famous English preacher Rev. precincts of St Alban’s C of E and fully in agreement with his elled widely as a merchant sailor, George Whitefield (1714-1770) Primary School (1955).8 bad opinion of the actions of their in Europe in the Mediterranean in a crowded American church, Letters published by Equiano cousin, Captain Pascal. Shortly on trading ships. In 1776 he even some of whose congregation was in newspapers of 1788, sometimes

Camden History Review Vol.29 (2005) signed with other campaigners Equiano’s state as slave and chat- parishes of St Pancras and St sector of Fitzrovia. While living such as Cugoana (see earlier), tel of the Captain. Marylebone, and correspondingly here in the second half of 1788, showed that he had an astute today between the boroughs of he was still single and he possibly understanding of what we would A ‘token black’ Camden and Westminster. Why rented only a part of No. 13. That call ‘pressure group’ tactics. For did he move? Maybe picturesque particular house has since been example, on 28 January 1788 he The “African Settlement” in Baldwin’s Gardens was just a replaced by one of a later date, but writes to the Public Advertiser in Equiano’s title was to be in Sierra little too run down and unsafe; adjacent Goodge Place survives, answer to a notorious pro-slaver Leone, on the west coast of Africa certainly, the quite newly built a small residential terraced street called Julius Tobin, pulling no some 1,000 miles west of Nigeria, suburb we call Fitzrovia was with characteristic brick houses punches and leaving aside the Equiano’s birthplace. In Sierra nearer to the emerging fashion- (c.1750) of ‘3 storeys and a base- polite conventions adopted in his Leone some well-meaning but able West End, with brand new ment below’ and with modest own memoirs. He accuses Tobin naive campaigners, including the gentry estates being built close little fan-lights. Most of Goodge of “glaring untruths”, especially normally wiser Granville Sharp, by. One supposes it was smarter Place, named Cumberland Street in asserting that the word of a free hoped with government support and healthier to live there, as black counted equally in court to establish a new colony of well as offering more congenial 4. Equiano’s Fitzrovia, showing with that of a white man in the ‘returned’ black slaves, many of neighbours. Fitzrovia was a place Totten ham Street, Cumberland Street West Indies; and he goes on to them veterans of the American where artists and poets with taste (now Goodge Place) and Union say, “you oblige me to use ill War of Independence in which and ambition but without much (Riding House Street (Horwood’s manners, you lie faster than Old they had fought with the English money could find agreeable plac- Plan of London, 1799) Nick can hear them. A few shall against the Americans. Equiano stare you in the face: What is your was already known for his activi- speaking of the laws in favour of ties in organising the Black Poor Negroes? Your description of the in London, within which organi- iron muzzle? That you never saw sation many prospective new set- the infliction of severe punish- tlers were expected to be found. ment, implying thereby that there Equiano became effectively, in is none? That a Negro has every 1786, England’s first black civil inducement to wish for a numer- servant. The appointment he ac- ous family? That in England there cepted tumed out to be a sham; he are no black labourers?” and so was ousted from it by participants on. in the scheme after complaining Olaudah signs himself as to the Authorities that they were “Gustavus Vassa, the Ethiopian cheating the proposed settlers by and the King’s Late Commissary providing short supplies. Equiano for the African Settlement/ was no doubt humiliated and Baldwin’s Garden Jan. 1788.” angry to find not only that the scheme was a sham but that his word, even as ‘Commissary’, in a ‘Gustavus Vassa’ supposedly important senior post, counted for nothing; he was, in Equiano referred to himself in other words, a ‘token black’. His his writings by his own African angry letters of 1788 were pub- es to live at not much cost. Open in Equiano’s day, has been re- name, as he recalled it, spelling lished before his autobiography, country was nearby, and, only in stored and painted, recreating the it phonetically; Paul Edwards has serving not only to advertise him- 1790 did Robert Adams Fitzroy atmosphere of the new Georgian identified his remembered name self in advance as an author but Square materialise as the area’s estates. On its corner with with words in the Ibo language also indicating that he had already magnificent centrepiece. Tottenham Street, in a onetime today.9 But he used Gustavus plenty of skill as a writer. His tal- The Committee for the corner shop next door to No.13, Vassa, his legal European name, ent for expressing himself by the Relief of the London Black Poor is the Fitzrovia Neighbourhood in public state≠ments when his pen has led some - inevitably – to (founded in 1786) was based Centre. On its Goodge Place status mattered, for example in wonder if the autobiography was in adjacent Warren Street. Also facade, Equiano’s memory is his published writings, in his genuine, or whether it was really nearby, on the site of today’s honoured by his inclusion, with marriage and in his will. written by a well-known author, American Church in London, was other local notables, in a bright It was Captain Pascal who, such as Daniel Defoe, in disguise. the Tottenham Court Chapel,11 millennial mural (Fig 5) painted in about 1759, had given him Some also try to claim Equiano as popularly known as Whitefield’s in 2000 by Brian Barnes for the his ‘legal’ identity, Gustavus an American by birth. But I think Tabernacle and founded in 1756 Fitzroy Play Association. Vassa – borrowed from a liberal that anyone who has experienced by George Whitefield, by whom 15th-century Swedish king of that something of Africa and who has Equiano had been inspired in name. The boy Equiano under- read his Narrative, especially as America. Whether this proxim- Riding House Street standably resisted being renamed, annotated by Paul Edwards, can ity was by choice or accident and would no doubt have done only conclude that it is a true one cannot know. During 1773 By 7 February 1789 Equiano had so even if had known the noble story told by a naturally talented or 1774 Equiano had become a moved westward, across the par- liberal associations of his new African writer. committed ‘Calvinist-Methodist’ ish boundary into St Marylebone name. It was not uncommon for Christian at the New Way (now Westminster) and to 10 naval officers to carry their own Chapel in Westminster, and it Union Street, which later became slaves to sea, or evidently to Tottenham Street, seems likely that he would have 73 Riding House Street. Here The bring them home and give them Fitzrovia sometimes also attended the Interesting Narrative was presum- as presents to friends or relations. ‘Tabernacle’ Chapel in subse- ably completed and published. But “naval opinion in general It may have been in Baldwin’s quent years. Certainly, his com- The book in nine volumes was and the Admiralty’s in particular Gardens that Equiano started to mitment towards his chosen form registered with the Stationer’s inclined to regard a man-of-war write his famous autobiography, of Christianity was the mainstay Company to protect the author’s as a little piece of British territory The Interesting Narrative. But by of his later life and an enormous copyright on 24 March 1789. in which slavery was improper” 25 June 1788 he had moved to support in his continued fight Equiano’s house has been de- 10 Professor Carretta thinks that Tottenham Street in what we against slavery. molished and University College the bizarre practice of renaming now call Fitzrovia (Fig 4), an Equiano first stayed at 13 London’s Department of Physics was used by Pascal to disguise area divided then between the Tottenham Street, in the Camden & Astronomy and Medical School

Camden History Review Vol.29 (2005) Institute of Surgical Studies now later with the London Missionary 5. The Goodge Place mural (detail) Equiano’s Equiano centre left. The shipwreck (top occupy the site. The building Society eventually mentioned in left) alludes to a Turner painting based bears a green plaque, erected by Equiano’s will. In 1818, some on the story of slaves being thrown subscribers overboard. Also pictured clockwise Westminster Council in 2001 and twenty years after the death Simon Bolivar, G B Shaw, Francisco inscribed: Equiano’s autobiography was of Equiano, the Rev. La Trobe de Miranda and Marie Stopes (Photo: published in 1789 by subscrip- published a wonderful account author) OLAUDAH tion, and the list of subscribers of a missionary joumey to South EQUIANO makes fascinating reading. It Africa, in which he displays an (1745-1797) includes famous anti-slavery enlightened attitude towards the “THE AFRICAN” campaigners from the professions indigenous population of the LIVED AND PUBLISHED and nobility, mixed with worthy Cape Colony that may well have HERE IN 1789 HIS but less notable people. John derived from his early London as- AUTOBIOGRAPHY Wesley the preacher is there, as is sociation with educated practising ON SUFFERING THE the Prince of Wales, together with BARBARITY OF SLAVERY other well-wishers of all kinds. WHICH PAVED THE WAY TO The 311 names in the first edition ITS ABOLITION had increased to 894 by the final (9th) edition in 1794. The first list Many of the surrounding build- includes a Mrs Guerin, related to ings belong to the Middlesex Olaudah’s early employers and Hospital, the earliest version of protectors, Elizabeth and Mary. which was already flourishing Also listed is Mrs Baynes, as there in Equiano’s day. Miss Mary Guerin had become on marrying a surgeon-general to the garrison in Gibraltar, in 1774. Touring and There are several Naval Officers, campaigning some of whom might have known Equiano in his early sailing days. Olaudah’s remaining years Another subscriber is Josiah were dedicated to marketing Wedgwood, the famous artist- his book which, being a canny potter, who in 1791 produced an businessman, he did very ex- exquisite little anti-slave-trade pertly, travelling all over Great medallion (see Fig 2, p 9). This Britain, promoting its sale, while was struck to promote the Society simultaneously campaigning for for Effecting the Abolition of the the abolition of the slave trade. Slave Trade,12 and thousands of He was probably also recruiting copies were sold. It is appropri- new members for a left-wing ate that the medallion, showing political group called the London a chained black slave with the Corresponding Society, founded words “Am I not a man and by Thomas Hardy (a friend of a brother?”, is displayed (in Thomas Paine, author of The 2004) in the British Museum’s Rights of Man), in whose Covent Enlightenment exhibition, in Garden house Equiano sometimes George III’s recently refurbished lodged. Hardy (1752-1832) was grand library. It was George later arrested and deported to III who had ordered in 1788 an Australia, while his society was inves≠tigation into the slave trade disbanded by the authorities in by the Privy Council Committee the nervousness caused by the for Trade and Plantations. By then French Revolution and the vio- approximately 80,000 Africans lence in Paris. a year were being transported to Equiano was by now a the Americas, more than half of committed Anti Slave Trade them in British ships. In 1792 an campaigner and the purpose of Abolition Bill was passed in the black Christians in London, such 1795. Ann Mary only lived for his book was as much to further Commons, only to be defeated in as Equiano. three years, until July 1797. Her this new campaign as to record the Lords. mother Susanna predeceased her, his own remarkable life. The Also in the book’s subscrip- dying in 1796 (possibly at the is quite tion list is Granville Sharp, A family man Chandos Street address). So too rightly described today as the the distinguished anti-slaver, Equiano lived in Fitzrovia for did her father, who died on 31 most disgusting mixture of com- already a friend and supporter only three years, and by 1790 had March 1797. The tragic sud≠den merce and abuse of a whole race of Equiano, and a visitor to his moved south again. demise of three of the family that has been associated with the deathbed during his last illness The 3rd and 4th editions of suggests some kind of infectious West within the last few hundred in 1797. Equiano had known him his very successful autobiog- disease, as would not have been years. But it is important to note personally since at least 1783, raphy seem to indicate that by unusual in those days. It was a that in his later life, Equiano was when he had told Sharp about then he was living at 4 Taylor’s sad ending to a very short fam≠ily campaigning – along with, by the notorious drowning of 133 Gardens, Chandos Street, Covent life. then, many famous and dedicated slaves thrown overboard, from Garden. Olaudah was now not white and black intellectuals in a ship called the Zong, in order only campaigning and promoting Equiano’s will London and clergy such as John to make a false insurance claim. his book, but also soon to start Wesley – against the Slave Trade. The first list of subscribers- fur a family. In 1792 he married an The younger daughter, Joanna, They were not, to begin with at ther includes a Rev. Mr C I La Englishwoman, Susanna Cullen survived and was well provided least, proposing the total abolition Trobe, undoubtedly a member of from Soham (Cambridgeshire), for. Her father left her £950 to of the state of slavery. the distinguished La Trobe fam- and they had two daughters — Ann be paid in 1816 when she tumed ily who were associated with the Mary (or Maria), born 16 October 21, a sum “roughly equiva- Moravian Church in London, and 1793, and Joanna, born 11 April lent to £80,000 today”. Such Camden History Review Vol.29 (2005) prosperity entitled Equiano to sentiments, was a target. On June 12”, which Biblical verse states: 16 See Professor Vincent Carretta’s call himself a gentleman in his 9th 1780, Sancho wrote: “Neither is there salvation in any study of Cuguano, Equiano and will.13 Furthermore, Equiano was “The Fleet Prison ... other: for there is none other name Sancho, “Friends of freedom, three wealthy enough to require a will, Clerkenwell and Tothill Fields under heaven given among men, African-British men of letters”, in and he was one of very few Afro- [prisons] together with Newgate whereby we must be saved.” Westminster History Review 3 Britons in the 18th century in this partly burned, and 300 felons (1999), pp 1-10. position.”14 By the time he wrote from thence let loose upon the 17 Sancho, a servant of the Duke of it, on 28 May 1796, Equiano was world — Lord M’s [Mansfield’s] Montagu, became butler to the living at the Plaisterer’s Hall, house in town [Bloomsbury Duchess and effectively her household Addle Street in the City.15 Square] suffered martyrdom; Notes and references manager. Equiano left money to the and his sweet box at Caen Wood 18 A letter from Lord Mansfield, 19 May London Missionary Society, with [Kenwood] escaped almost mi- 1786, ends: “... wrote by Dido, I hope which the Rev. La Trobe was raculously, for the mob had just 1 Heward, Edmund. Lord Mansfield: you will be able to read it” (Lincoln’s connected and whose directors arrived, and were beginning with a biography (Rose, 1979), Inn Library, Dampier Mss, BPB 428- were then based at the Spa Fields it — when a strong detachment pp 145-6. 479). Chapel, in Clerkenwell. The from the guards and light horse 2 Blackstone, William. Commentaries 19 See Adams, Gene. “A black girl at bequest was to assist the school came most critically to its rescue on the laws of England. 1st ed. Kenwood”, in Camden History established in Sierra Leone, — the library [in Bloomsbury] (1765-69). Review 12 (1984), pp 10-14. which, owing to the collapse of and what is of more consequence, 3 Ref. 1, p 147. his earlier job as ‘Commissary’, papers and deeds of vast value, 4 Equiano, Olaudah. The interesting Olaudah never did visit. were all cruelly consumed in the narrative and other writings. New Most interestingly, he also flames.” revised ed., edited by Vincent Carretta left a legacy to James Parkinson, (Penguin, 2003). the owner of a small collection Black slaves 5 Cugoano, Ottobah. Thoughts and of natural history specimens col- sentiments on the evil and wicked lected by Sir Ashton Lever and portrayed traffic of the slavery and commerce known as the Leverian Museum, of the human species... (T Becket, that the British Museum later A few notable blacks of the time 1787). declined to buy, and which was were female. Dido, a young 6 Slack, Steve. “The point of no return”, dispersed by auction. It would be Mulatto (mixed-race) girl was in Museums Journal fascinating to know how related to no less than Lord (October 2004). Equiano came to be connected. Mansfield, and lived in his house- 7 The date is disputed by Professor Another annuity was left hold at Kenwood. Born c.1763, Vincent Carretta and Paul Edwards, to Francis Folkes and his wife she would have been a child when leading scholars on Equiano: Frances, of Pleasant Passage near her great-uncle pronounced his contemporary records indicate that Mother Redcap’s Inn, Hampstead judgement on the slave Somersett. Whitefield was in America in 1765, Road (on the site of the present In the late 1780s, aged about rather than 1766. However, when World’s End pub in Camden 25, she was acting as occasional one consid≠ers the insecurity and Town). Pleasant Passage, then amanuensis for the ailing judge18 complexity of Equiano’s life and the on the rural fringe of London, is who had long since given her her fact that he was writing his memoirs now, as Underhill Passage, a not freedom. Though not a writer, she in his middle age and presumably especially pleasant alleyway next was clearly intelligent and suf- with few written documents to which to Marks & Spencer. The yearly ficiently well educated to perform to refer, the accuracy and detail of his value of the annuity was £58 2s such a role. A painting, still in the story is admirable. 8d, not a fortune, but a generous possession of the Mansfield fam- 8 Denford, Steven & Hellings, David. gift, presumably to two good ily and supposedly by Zoffany, Streets of Old Holborn (CHS, friends. Perhaps they had cared depicts Dido in the grounds of 1999), p 65. for Equiano or his family in their Kenwood.19 Ignatius Sancho 9 Edwards, Paul (ed.). Equiano’s times of need. was painted by Gainsborough. travels (Heinemann, 1967). Where did Olaudah’s wealth Paintings of slaves, or with slaves 10 Rodger, N A M. The wooden world: come from? Some of it derived in them, were not unusual in aris- an anatomy of the Georgian Navy from his own hard work as an tocratic households at the time. (Fontana, 1990), p 160. independent trader; a little of it Equiano was a free man by 11 See Hayes, David A. “A Horne maybe from gifts; but undoubted- the time he published his book, duet...”, in Camden History Review 28 ly most of it from his own shrewd and we know what he looked (2004), p 27. marketing of his spellbinding like from the frontispiece portrait 12 Founded in 1787 by such eminent autobiography. of the author (Fig 1, p 8), which, persons as Granville Sharp and it is assumed, he commissioned Wilberforce and supported by from artists whom he personally many others, especially Equiano Other black knew. Both of them are listed as and his friends. London is still the intellectuals subscribers in the first edition headquarters of the anti-slavery of 1789. The stipple-and-line movement. The Society’s successor, Equiano was not the only black engraving by Daniel Orme (1766- Anti-slavery International, is based at intellectual in London during c.1832) is from an original picture The Stableyard, Broomgrove, London the late 18th century.16 Others by a little known artist called SW9. were active in helping the less William Denton. Orme showed 13 Reproduced in Ref. 4, Appendix F, pp fortunate black people, through work at the Royal Academy and 373-5. the organisation for the Relief of was appointed engraver to George 14 According to Vincent Carretta (Ref. 4). Gene Adams, who has lived the London Black Poor. A fel- III. The portrait of Equiano shows 15 The Plaisterer’s Hall, in which in Camden since 1958, was low black intellectual, Ignatius a man in a dark navy coat, with Equiano had lodged as a subtenant Museums Adviser to the Inner Sancho,17 wrote letters describ- white waistcoat and starched of a goldsmith called William Rolfe, London Education Authority, ing the frightening Gordon Riots frilled cravat. He looks confident- was designed by Wren to replace the organising educational against the Catholics in London. ly and gravely out at the reader, medieval hall destroyed in the Great programmes at Kenwood. Her Lord Mansfield, suspected by the holding in his hand an open book Fire; the Wren building was, in turn,. article on Dido (see note 19) has rioters of having pro-Catholic inscribed “ACTS; CHAP IV.V. burned down in 1882. attracted international interest.

Camden History Review Vol.29 (2005)