Anti-slavery campaigner remembered at site of former burial ground

The anti-slavery campaigner Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) has been honoured with a permanent memorial at the site of the former burial ground on Tottenham Court Road, near a place where his remains might still lie.

The memorial is on a wall, which marks the boundary of the old graveyard, and was unveiled on 15 June by The Equiano Society and the American International Church.

Arthur Torrington CBE, co-founder (with the late Sam King MBE), of The Equiano Society, said: “The occasion celebrates the life of an African who made outstanding contributions to British life, having served also in the Seven Years’ War (1756-1763), travelling to Canada on the same ship as General James Wolfe (1727-1759). The Memorial is but a token of appreciation of Equiano’s service to humanity.”

Rev Jennifer Mills-Knutsen, senior pastor, American International Church, said: “This public commemoration will bring to light a critical figure in Black British history. Equiano’s autobiography and speeches played a critical role in turning public opinion toward abolition in England and America. We hope this permanent memorial will help us tell a more accurate and representative version of our history, and inspire the public today in the continued work of building a more just world.”

Equiano is now remembered at three locations in Fitzrovia. The first memorial was unveiled at 73 Riding House Street, on the site of a building where he wrote his autobiography in 1789, and installed by Westminster council in 2000. Then in 2020 another plaque was unveiled by Camden Council at 37 Tottenham Street where Equiano had lived in 1788.

It was only recently discovered that Equiano’s remains are likely still at his original burial site in the grounds of what was then the Whitefield Tabernacle — at what is now Whitfield Gardens beside and to the south of the American International Church on Tottenham Court Road. 

“We have been searching for his burial place for 50 years,” said Torrington in an interview for Fitzrovia News in 2019.

Professor Vincent Carretta, author of a biography Equiano, the African, had written to Torrington and asked him to check if Gustavus Vassa [Equiano’s slave name] was shown in the Whitefield Tabernacle burial records. 

Torrington in turn asked his colleague, David Gleave of Historical Roots, to check the records. He went to the London Metropolitan Archives and found the name Gustus Vasa, aged 52. 

“It was not spelled quite correctly but is very close and the burial date of 6 April 1797 matched the date of Equiano’s death and his age at the time,” said Gleave.

“I then went to Chingford Mount Cemetery, where some bodies were reburied [in 1898] and they gave me the names of those that were taken there [from Tottenham Court Road]. 

“His was not one of them and only about five or six were not named. As 30,000 were buried at Whitefield Tabernacle grounds, it is more than likely that Equiano stayed on this site.” 

Equiano, a Christian, had actually attended the Tabernacle during his final years. 

The Tabernacle had been built in 1756 for the evangelical preacher George Whitefield (1714- 1770) who later went to America where Equiano saw him preach. 

“I had often heard of this gentleman, and had wished to see and hear him; but I had never before had an opportunity,” wrote Equiano in his autobiography. 

“When I got into the church I saw this pious man exhorting the people with the greatest fervour and earnestness, and sweating as much as I ever did while in slavery at Montserrat beach.” 

However, Whitefield was also a supporter of slavery.

“Among those influenced by Whitefield’s preaching were the enslaved African Americans of the colonies. Whitefield taught that African Americans were the spiritual equals of whites, and that masters should not abuse their slaves,” states Thomas S Kidd.

“But he also taught that converting to Christianity would not lead to the slaves’ freedom. Instead, conversion would help them be better slaves.

“He also came to own a plantation and slaves in South Carolina by way of planters there who had converted under his preaching.

“Whitefield’s moderate approach to slavery became typical of white southern evangelicals: he believed that slaves needed salvation, and he argued against their maltreatment, but he would not ultimately challenge the institution of slavery itself,” says Kidd.

Equiano had bought his freedom for £40 in 1766, then became a businessman, explorer, community activist, writer, and an abolitionist. He also worked for the Committee for the Relief of the Black Poor, in Warren Street.

As an abolitionist campaigner Equiano had declared: “Tortures, murder, and every imaginable barbarity and inequity, are practised upon the poor slaves with impunity. I hope the slave trade will be abolished. I pray it may be an event at hand.”

His bestselling book, The Interesting Narrative, published in 1789, went into nine editions over six years. He lobbied Parliament for the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade but died before the trade was eventually outlawed in 1807.