Olaudah Equiano
Olaudah Equiano (1745-1797) was a writer and abolitionist of West African descent, specifically Nigerian. His origins have been debated as some sources state his birthplace as South Carolina. Despite the discrepancy, his trying tale of survival during the Transatlantic slave trade is very true to life. Equiano detailed the harrowing experience in his autobiography The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789). It’s an early slave narrative that was used to condemn and expose the horrors of the practice.
