Gustavus Vassa and the Scottish Enlightenment

The Scottish connection of Olaudah Equiano is well known. Gustavus Vassa, alias Olaudah Equiano, the African, spent time in Edinburgh in 1792 selling subscriptions to his autobiography and continuing his honeymoon there with his wife, Suzannah Cullen. In two editions of The Interesting Narrative, the list of Scottish subscribers, both in Scotland and elsewhere, was impressive. That Vassa was important to the abolition movement in Scotland is well recognized, and on May 24, 1792, he attended the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, where a resolution to the House of Lords in support of the abolition of slavery was unanimously adopted. Less well known is Vassa’s association with Dr. Charles Irving and Alexander Blair. This paper explores the earlier influence of these Scottish intellectuals and entrepreneurs on Vassa’s development as an intellectual and abolitionist. It is argued that Vassa’s evolution as a political activist has to be understood in the context of the contradictions of the “Scottish Enlightenment.”