Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano was born around 1745 in the Kingdom of Benin, in what is now Nigeria. At the age of approximately 11, he was kidnapped along with his sister and sold into slavery. He was transported across the Atlantic on a slave ship — an experience he would later describe in harrowing detail — and eventually purchased by a Royal Navy officer, Michael Henry Pascal, who gave him the name Gustavus Vassa.

Despite his enslaved status, Equiano was given an unusual degree of education and responsibility. He served in the Royal Navy during the Seven Years' War, learned to read and write, and gained significant experience of trade and commerce. He was baptised as a Christian in 1759 and began building the literacy that would eventually make him famous.

After being sold again — a devastating betrayal by Pascal, who had promised him freedom — Equiano eventually purchased his own freedom in 1766 for £40. He continued working as a sailor and merchant, travelling to the Arctic, the Caribbean, the American colonies and Central America, accumulating a wealth of experience that would fuel his later writing.

In 1789, Equiano published The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. The book was an immediate bestseller, going through nine editions in his lifetime. It is a masterpiece of autobiographical writing — part adventure story, part spiritual journey, part devastating indictment of the slave trade. It was one of the most powerful weapons in the abolitionist arsenal.

Equiano became a prominent figure in the abolitionist movement, presenting a petition against the slave trade to Queen Charlotte and Parliament. He died in London in 1797, just ten years before the Slave Trade Act of 1807 abolished the trade he had fought so hard against. His book remained in print and continued to influence the movement after his death.