Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano was an African-born writer and abolitionist whose 1789 autobiography recounted his enslavement, maritime life, and eventual freedom.

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano: Olaudah Equiano’s 1789 autobiography recounts his enslavement, travels, conversion to Christianity, and campaign against slavery. This is the book through which Equiano told his life story and advanced abolition.
Abolitionism: A movement to end slavery and the slave trade. Equiano used his public writing and organizing to support this movement in Britain.
Granville Sharp: An English abolitionist who helped establish the legal principle that slavery was unsupported by English law in Somerset’s Case. Sharp was among the prominent British abolitionists whose networks overlapped with Equiano’s activism.
Somerset v Stewart: A 1772 English court case ruling that Charles Stewart could not forcibly remove James Somerset from England as a slave. The ruling formed part of the legal and political setting for Equiano’s life in Britain.
Atlantic slave trade: The forced transportation of millions of Africans across the Atlantic for enslavement in the Americas. Equiano’s account describes capture, the Middle Passage, and sale within this system.
Slave narrative: A first-person account by an enslaved or formerly enslaved person describing slavery and its effects. Equiano’s autobiography became a major example of this form.
Thomas Clarkson: An English abolitionist who gathered evidence and organized campaigns against the British slave trade. Clarkson and Equiano worked in the same parliamentary abolition campaign.
Black British literature: Literature written by Black authors in Britain, spanning multiple genres and historical periods. Equiano’s autobiography is an early and influential work in this literary tradition.
Middle Passage: The forced transatlantic voyage that carried enslaved Africans to the Americas. Equiano’s narrative gives a first-person account of the shipboard crossing.
British abolitionism: The movement in Britain to end the slave trade and, later, slavery itself. Equiano joined British campaigners pressing Parliament to abolish the trade.

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