The Cambridgeshire family of abolitionist Olaudah Equiano (or Gustavus Vassa, the African): New biographical light on Susannah Cullen, his wife, and their daughters, Anna Maria and Joanna Vassa (1762–1857)

Abstract

Based on rigorous analysis and interrogation of a mass of new primary source data, including unpublished archival material and contemporaneous newspaper articles, this article reconstructs the biographies of Ely-born Susannah Cullen, and Soham-born Anna Maria and Joanna Vassa, respectively the white wife and mixed-race daughters of Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, the African. It amplifies and corrects what has previously been published about the lives of these women, presenting fascinating new research that illuminates the history of Black and mixed-heritage families, and the variability of black women’s lives and experiences, in late eighteenth- and early-to-mid nineteenth-century Britain. It critically engages with the wider body of existing scholarship on black British history and British women’s history, the development of anti-slavery campaigns and abolitionist activism, local cultures of dissent and political radicalism, the history of racism and shifting attitudes to ‘race’ and inter-racial marriage in late eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Britain, especially in rural English localities. It opens up avenues for further research into Equiano’s family and private life, advocating for a more diverse and inclusive history of Britain and its regions.