Olaudah Equiano, born in Nigeria and captured into slavery, ended up playing a role in the movement for the abolition of the British slave trade. Equiano was both an abolitionist and a leader of the African community in Britain during the eighteenth century. Born in 1745 in Benin, he was kidnapped by slave hunters at the age of ten and subsequently brought to the Caribbean and America. At the age of 21 he purchased his freedom. He learned how to read, write, and calculate while on board a ship during the Seven Years War. He published his autobiography in 1789, in London, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African.
