Olaudah Equiano ( c. 1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa , was a writer and abolitionist. According to his memoir, he was from the village of Essaka in modern southern Nigeria.[1][2] Enslaved as a child in West Africa, he was shipped to the Caribbean and sold to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more before purchasing his freedom in 1766.
As a freedman in London, Equiano supported the British abolitionist movement, in the 1780s becoming one of its leading figures. Equiano was part of the abolitionist group the Sons of Africa, whose members were Africans living in Britain. His 1789 autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, sold so well that nine editions were published during his life and helped secure passage of the British Slave Trade Act 1807, which abolished the slave trade.[3] The Interesting Narrative gained renewed popularity among scholars in the late 20th century and remains a useful primary source
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But is not the slave trade entirely a war with the heart of man?
In 1789, Olaudah Equiano published his remarkable autobiography of his journey from enslavement to freedom. Kidnapped from his home in West Africa and sold into slavery as a child, Equiano – renamed Gustavus Vassa – travelled the world as an enslaved man, before he eventually purchased his freedom and became a leading figure in the British abolition campaign.
One of the earliest known books published by a Black African author, Equiano’s vivid and harrowing life story shed light on the atrocities of the transatlantic slave trade. The Interesting Narrative has been widely celebrated for its impact on the abolitionist movement and remains today a powerful record of the horrors of slavery.
