It was the first book written in the English language by an African, and it was called The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. The stories in the book were so powerful that ...

click image for close-up This portrait of Olaudah Equiano was used as the frontispiece (illustration opposite a book's title page) of his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of ...

Equiano was born in Essaka, a small village in Benin, in 1745. His father was an Embrenche, an elder or chief, and oversaw disputes and punishments. He had five brothers and one sister, and was ...

Olaudah Equiano: I was enslaved for many years in the West Indies and America. I bought my freedom in 1766 and settled in Britain. I became friends with many of the British abolitionists such as ...

Douglass’ book sold 30,000 copies by 1860 and was ... Equiano’s 1789 “The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano; or, Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself ...