Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745–1797), also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a writer and abolitionist, born, by his own account, in the Igbo country of what is now Nigeria. Kidnapped as a child and sold into slavery, he served a Royal Navy officer during the Seven Years' War, learned to read and was sold to a Quaker merchant in Montserrat, from whom he bought his freedom in 1766. He then worked as a sailor and hairdresser, joined an Arctic expedition and became a leading figure in Black London. His Interesting Narrative (1789), one of the first slave narratives, went through nine editions and made him a prosperous campaigner against the trade.