The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano

Widely admired for its vivid accounts of the slave trade, Olaudah Equiano’s autobiography — the first slave narrative to attract a significant readership — reveals many aspects of the eighteenth-century Western world through the experiences of one individual. The second edition reproduces the original London printing, supervised by Equiano in 1789. Robert J. Allison’s introduction, which places Equiano’s narrative in the context of the Atlantic slave trade, has been revised and updated to reflect the heated controversy surrounding Equiano’s birthplace, as well as the latest scholarship on Atlantic history and the history of slavery.