Olaudah was almost immediately sold to a family in Virginia. He was too weak to work in the fields and was therefore put in the house to take care of the dying Grandfather (Wheeler). Once the Grandfather died they sold Olaudah to British Naval Officer Michael Pascal (Dexheimer). Olaudah was there to work on the ship, which relieved the young man of working on a plantation. It was then that he received the name Gustavus Vassa. Being renamed by Pascal was a common practice of slave owners, it showed their power over the slave of being able to take anything from them. The name Gustavus Vassa was a cruel joke because it was a Swedish nobleman's name who went to war against the Danes to gain "freedom" for the Swedish people. One thing that was quite fortunate for Oluadah was that Pascal sent him to be schooled in reading and writing to become more valuable (Carey). He sailed across the Atlantic Ocean many times from England to the Carribean and American colonies and he participated in several naval battles (Lauter). When Oluadah was sailing and fighting for the British army he rightfully felt entitled to receive a part of the prize money that was handed to all naval personnel and he expected to receive his freedom, but Pascal refused to grant it. (Carey). Equiano assumed that because he was now a seamen rather than a slave during the seven year war that he was free, as did many of the other men he sailed with, but Pascal did not allow it and he sold him (BBC Documentary). Olaudah was sold several times again in the West Indies and came into the "possession" of Robert King. Because of his versatility, willingness to learn many skills and his ability to read and write he became very useful to the merchant. During his time with King he saw the worst cruelty to slaves that he had ever seen. This gave him the incentive to gain his freedom and so during this time Olaudah began buying fruit before voyages and then selling them to sailors on the boats for a small profit (Wheeler). It took him three years to obtain £40 which was the cost of his freedom (Carey). King promised that if he could repay him the £40 it had cost him to buy Equiano then he could buy back his freedom (BBC Documentary).