Original article (2000)
The most important and one of the most widely published authors of African descent in the English-speaking world of the eighteenth century, Equiano helped found the genre of the slave narrative when he published The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African. Written by Himself in London in March 1789. The Interesting Narrative is a spiritual autobiography, captivity narrative, travel book, adventure tale, slavery narrative, economic treatise, apologia, and argument against the transatlantic slave trade and slavery.
In his autobiography Equiano says that he was born in 1745, in what is now southeastern Nigeria, and …
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Citation: Carretta, Vincent, Joshua Grasso. "Olaudah Equiano". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2000; last revised 19 April 2018. [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=1437, accessed 21 November 2024.]
