Today I told you about Olaudah Equiano who was around ten years old when he was kidnapped and sold into slavery. After many years and experiences (good, bad, and horrible), he was able to buy his freedom and eventually wrote his autobiography to let others know about the horrors of slavery. I then began reading aloud The Kidnapped Prince, an adaptation of Olaudah’s autobiography for children by Ann Cameron.
As I mentioned to you, there has been some debate as to whether or not Olaudah was born in Africa or not. Check out this link for some reasons this could or could not be true. The author of that website concludes,
“The bottom line is that we just don’t know. As the above table shows, there is evidence on both sides of the debate. Just about the only thing we can say for certain is that, when he was younger, Equiano told people he was from Carolina, but when he was older, he told people he was from Africa. Whether you believe the younger Equiano or the older Equiano is entirely up to you…
Next I will show you a multimedia presentation of Olaudah’s description of life in Africa which consisted of images from my own time in Africa, other relevant images, maps, sound, and much more.