Eighteenth-century abolitionist writer Olaudah Equiano's autobiography details his life as an enslaved person, his eventual freedom, and the journey of spiritual discovery he underwent along the way.

Olaudah Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was one of the most notable anti-slavery activists in 18th-century Britain, particularly because he had once been enslaved.

In his memoir The Interesting Narrative, Equiano showed white bourgeois readers first-hand what it was like to have lived under slavery, going on a journey from freedom in Africa to servitude in the Americas to freedom again in Britain.

Equiano proved that a free Black man was capable of writing sophisticated literature and building his own fortune, something which was highly debated at the time.

The Interesting Narrative and Equiano's wider story became a crucial part of the campaign that would see the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807.