The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Author: Equiano, Olaudah

United Kingdom, Great Britain

Published on 18 January 2024 by HarperCollins Publishers (William Collins) in the United Kingdom as part of 'the Collins Classics' series.

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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.