The West Indies are a group of islands that span over 2000 miles. The West Indies separates the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean Sea from the Atlantic Ocean. Historians estimate that before European exploration and colonization, there were around 6 million inhabitants in the West Indies, but most of this population was decimated by European violence, slavery, and disease. The first permanent European settlement in the Americas was in the West Indies at Santo Domingo. The Spanish dominated the area until the English started to take over in the 17th century. In the 17th century, plantation slavery grew in the West Indies as well, with increasing numbers of sugar and coffee plantations that used slave labor which involved mass forced migration of West Africans. While Britain abolished the slave trade in 1807, slavery wasn't fully eradicated in the West Indies until the late 19th century. And the effects of slavery and colonization still have a major negative impact on the economies of the islands in the West Indies.
Olaudah Equiano references the West Indies several times in his Narrative. He states: "we came alongside of a ship which was going away the next tide for the West Indies;" " I thought this a strange sight, as I had never seen churches, either in England or the West Indies, crowded in this manner before," "A silversmith, whom we had brought to this place some voyages before, agreed with the Captain to return with us to the West Indies." Equiano references the West Indies because he had experiences there. Additionally, it is an unavoidable location in a story that takes place during this time period about an enslaved person, as it was a central location in the slave trade.
Sources: https://www.britannica.com/place/West-Indies-island-group-Atlantic-Ocea…