02/08/2026
From Slave to Bestselling Author
Born around 1745 in present-day southeastern Nigeria, Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped as a child and sold into the transatlantic slave trade. After years of enslavement, he earned enough money to buy his freedom. Rather than disappear into anonymity, he wrote the powerful autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, exposing the horrors of slavery. His book became one of the most influential works in the campaign to abolish the British slave trade.
"They took away his freedom—but not his voice."
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