James Stout

And he's like a merchant or something.

I don't know exactly what he's there to do, but –

He sees he once recognizes, wow, this kid is smart as hell.

And he's he already speaks a ton of languages.

There's a lot I can have him do.

So King starts having Equiano work a bunch of different jobs.

And he starts like basically assigning him out to like subcontract him with other guys.

And some of these guys are like fairly decent and are like, hey, what if we hired you to do extra side work and pay you personally for it?

And King is like, yeah, you know, I have no problem with you making money on the side.

Right.

Why not?

Yeah.

And so these guys like both teach him how to, you know, train him up and help him like learn these different trades.

And he's able to make side money.

And so he takes the side money and he starts buying and selling goods with the money that he makes.

Right.

And basically turning his salary into even more money.

And he does well enough at this that in 1766, when he's about 21, he's able to buy his freedom.

And he does.

Robert King allows him to do this, which he didn't have to do.