The Life of Olaudah Equiano first published in 1789 in London, is the autobiography of Olaudah Equiano. The narrative represents a variety of styles, including slavery narrative, travel narrative, and spiritual narrative. The book describes Equiano's time spent in enslavement, and documents his attempts at becoming an independent man through his study of the Bible, and his eventual success in gaining his own freedom.

Born in the area that is now southern Nigeria, he was kidnapped with his sister at around the age of 11, sold by local slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to Barbados and then Virginia. After spells in Barbados and Virginia, he spent eight years travelling the world as slave to a British Royal Navy officer, who renamed him Gustavus Vassa. His final master, an English merchant in Montserrat, let him buy his freedom for £40 – almost a year’s salary. Equiano worked as an explorer and merchant for 20 years, and eventually settled in England, the country where he had converted to Christianity in 1759. With the encouragement of the Abolitionists, who campaigned against the slave trade, he published his memoirs in 1789.

Part of the best selling Capstone Classics Series, this collectable hardback edition is a volume which will occupy a prominent place in any library for years to come.

Olaudah Equiano was an African writer and abolitionist whose experiences as a slave prompted him to become involved in the British antislavery movement. Born in the area that is now southern Nigeria, he was kidnapped with his sister at around the age of 11, sold by local slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic. After buying his freedom, Equiano worked as an explorer and merchant for 20 years, and eventually settled in England. He published his memoirs in 1789.

Michael Taylor is an historian of colonial slavery, the British Empire and the British Isles. He is currently a Visiting Fellow at the British Library’s Eccles Centre for American Studies.

Tom Butler-Bowdon is Series Editor of the Capstone Classics series, and has provided Introductions for Plato’s Republic, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, Machiavelli’s The Prince, Florence Scovel Shinn’s The Game of Life and How to Play It, and Kahlil Gibran’s The Prophet. A graduate of the London School of Economics, he is also the author of 50 Economics Classics (2017) and 50 Politics Classics (2015).

www.butler-bowdon.com

Introduction by Michael Taylor ix

About Michael Taylor xxix

About Tom Butler-Bowdon xxxi

The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano xxxiii