Printed book open to title page at right and an oval portrait of Olaudah Equiano at left.

Olaudah Equiano (1745–1797)
The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African
London: Printed for and sold by the Author, 1789
Manuscripts, Archives and Rare Books Division, Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture

The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African

Olaudah Eqiuano’s Interesting Narrative is among the earliest published first-person accounts of life under enslavement. A bestselling work in its time and an exemplar of the emergent genre of the “slave narrative,” Equiano’s life story recounted the horrors of slavery and argued the case for its abolition. This image of Equiano shows him reading a book—an acknowledgment of the achievement and power of literacy under slavery.

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