Olaudah Equiano

Time Period
1623 to 1763
1764 to 1824
Topics
Black History
Image
VHE_OlaudahEquiano_HT869.E64.1809.Rare_.jpg

Title page of The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano

Snatched from his Ibo village in Nigeria at the age of eleven, Equiano (c. 1745-1797) was transported to Barbados, Virginia, and finally England, where he gained his freedom in 1766. He is the author of the only memoir by an enslaved African brought to Virginia, The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano. After marrying an Englishwoman in 1792, Equiano converted to Methodism and became an active member of the abolitionist movement.