Super Short Summary

Originally published in 1789, Olaudah Equiano’s The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African is a slave narrative in which the author recounts his childhood, capture, life as an enslaved person, and emancipation. With its descriptions of life among the Igbo and the author’s experience of the Middle Passage, the book is a key text for studying the transatlantic slave trade and lives of people of African descent in the 18th century. The book gained a wide audience during debates around abolition in Great Britain and was reprinted multiple times. Descriptions of physical and sexual abuse are present.