Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano (1745 – 31 March 1797), known for most of his life as Gustavus Vassa was a writer and abolitionist from, according to his memoir, the Eboe (Igbo) region of the Kingdom of Benin (today southern Nigeria). Enslaved as a child in Africa, he was taken to the Caribbean and sold as a slave to a Royal Navy officer. He was sold twice more but purchased his freedom in 1766.