Olaudah Equiano spent a happy early childhood in (current-day) Nigeria as the son of an African noble, endured kidnapping by another tribe, was sold to white slave traders, survived the brutal, dangerous Middle Crossing to the new world, traveled throughout the Caribbean, America and England, converted to Christianity, and bought his own freedom from slavery - all by the age of twenty-one. Truly, he lived a remarkable life. Even more remarkable is that we know his story. Determined to learn English and to become literate, Equiano not only did both, but, once manumitted, became an impassioned opponent of slavery. He also established a new genre of literature: the slave narrative, designed to elicit empathy for enslaved Africans and support for abolition. His autobiography influenced later works, including the most famous of all, the narrative of Frederick Douglass.

1. Read excerpts from Equiano's famous slave narrative online at
   http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/Equiano.html
2. A web site devoted to Equiano, including a map of his travels, more excerpts from his work, and good links to related sites, is available at
   http://www.brycchancarey.com/equiano/
3. Equiano's narrative describes the harrowing journey from Africa to the New World aboard a slave ship. View numerous contemporary images of the slave trade, including a diagram of how to pack slaves into the ship's hold most efficiently, from the Library of Congress's collection at
   http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/082_slave.html