Equiano was captured as a 10-year-old boy by slave hunters, transported to the coast and sold to slave traders. He survived a harrowing crossing and ended up in Barbados. The boy passed from hand to hand and after a short time came to Virginia to a plantation owner, who in turn sold him to an English naval officer named Henry Pascal. As a personal servant, he participated in the Seven Years' War in America from 1757 to 1762. In 1762 he was resold to a plantation owner and returned to the West Indies. Here he was able to buy his own freedom, but remained with his