Olaudah Equiano's Narrative Online: Hanover Historical Texts Project

Olaudah Equiano was born circa 1745 in Nigeria and died March 31, 1797 in London. Known also by the name Gustavus Vassa he prominently involved in the movement to abolish the slave trade in Great Britain. His life was a fascinating one in which her purchased his own freedom, working as a merchant and seaman in various places including America, the Caribbean and elsewhere.

His autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, was a bestseller after it was published in 1789. This narrative illustrated the horrors of slavery. British lawmakers eventually passed the Slave Trade Act of 1807, abolishing the slave trade.

The text of Equiano's narrative is available online courtesy of the Hanover Historical Texts Project:

In 1995, the History Department and Hanover students initiated the Hanover Historical Texts Project. The Project's principal aim is to make primary texts readily available to students and faculty for use in history and humanities courses.

The texts scanned for the project are all in public domain. The electronic forms of the texts created by the HHTP are under copyright. Permission to copy and use the texts is granted for educational purposes. We ask that you acknowledge the Hanover Historical Texts Project. Permission is not granted for commercial uses.

Bibliographical information and acknowledgements for scanning, conversion into html, and proofreading are found at the beginning of each text. Page numbers appear in parentheses at the point of the page breaks in the original texts.