The lost grave of abolitionist daughter found

An A-level pupil found the lost grave of the Black abolitionist Olaudah Equiano's daughter, revealing a story of love in 18th-century rural England.

- Chris Osuh Geneva Abdul

Equiano (1745-1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, was born in the village of Essaka in present-day Nigeria. Enslaved as a child, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer, then sold twice more before buying his freedom in 1766. He became a celebrated author and campaigner in Georgian England.

His memoir, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, was a bestseller. His book tour took him to Cambridgeshire, where he married and had two children with Susannah Cullen, an Englishwoman from Ely. They settled in Soham, supported by a local network including abolitionist friends, safe at a time when reactionary "church and king" mobs were targeting reformers.