In Falmouth, he and Pascal lodged at a gentleman's house. Although Equiano began to admire the white people for their wisdom, he was "amazed at their not sacrificing, or making any offerings, and eating with unwashed hands, and touching the dead." During this time, he also gained a desire for literacy as he watched Dick read and believed his friend was talking to the books. Richard Webster (who went by Dick) helped him to understand the language. He was told that it came from God, "a great man in the heavens," and so he decided to begin attending church to learn more of this figure. When it snowed there one day, Equiano was fascinated with the phenomenon and asked his master where it came from. It was 1757 when Equiano reached England he was twelve years old.
His alarms subsided when the ship reached Falmouth after being at sea for thirteen weeks. However, he was intrigued by grampuses, which he had never seen before. Baker was an educated native of America and had "a mind superior to prejudice and who was not ashamed to notice, to associate with, and to be the friend and instructor of one who was ignorant, a stranger, of a different complexion, and a slave!" Equiano adds that he and Baker remained friends until Baker's death in 1759, which occurred onboard a ship called The Preston.Įquiano was still quite afraid both of the white men and of the roaring, convulsing sea.
On this ship, he met Richard Baker, a young white man about four or five years older than him. He initially protested this change, but acquiesced after being beaten. They boarded a ship for England, and here Equiano was given a new name – Gustavus Vassa. While visiting the Virginia gentleman, Pascal took a liking to Equiano and purchased him as a gift for some friends in England. One day, the "kind and unknown hand of the Creator" revealed itself to Equiano in the form of a merchant ship captain named Michael Henry Pascal. He also resented that he was given new names he was called Jacob here, and had previously been called Michael - both names of which he disapproved. He wished for death, and was terrified of his owner, who had placed an iron muzzle on one of the old female slaves. Equiano watched as all of his friends were sold off to traders until he was the only one left on the plantation, miserable in his loneliness. There, they worked on a plantation for a rich old gentleman. They landed in Virginia country, which they accessed by sailing up a river. On this journey, they were treated better and had more to eat. Equiano and other slaves remained on Barbados for a few days, but were then shipped off in a sloop to North America.
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