On this ship, he met Richard Baker, a young white man about four or five years older than him. He initially protested this change, but acquiesced after being beaten. They boarded a ship for England, and here Equiano was given a new name – Gustavus Vassa. While visiting the Virginia gentleman, Pascal took a liking to Equiano and purchased him as a gift for some friends in England. One day, the "kind and unknown hand of the Creator" revealed itself to Equiano in the form of a merchant ship captain named Michael Henry Pascal. He also resented that he was given new names he was called Jacob here, and had previously been called Michael - both names of which he disapproved. He wished for death, and was terrified of his owner, who had placed an iron muzzle on one of the old female slaves. Equiano watched as all of his friends were sold off to traders until he was the only one left on the plantation, miserable in his loneliness. There, they worked on a plantation for a rich old gentleman. They landed in Virginia country, which they accessed by sailing up a river. On this journey, they were treated better and had more to eat. Equiano and other slaves remained on Barbados for a few days, but were then shipped off in a sloop to North America.
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