8 The Narrative reached a wide audience and was very effective in gaining the public’s attention by 1837 there were sixteen editions of the autobiography, with translations into Dutch, German and Russian. Olaudah Equiano became involved in the Sierra Leone settlement for the re-homing of freed slaves, but is most famously remembered as the author of The Interesting Narrative which was published in 1789 and became an eighteenth-century bestseller. 6 He spent most of his adolescent years enslaved but bought his freedom from his master Robert King in 1766, in his early twenties. 5 Olaudah Equiano was a black African who was kidnapped and sold to slavers in 1756, between the age of ten and eleven the exact age remains a controversial issue amongst scholars. 3 Although Equiano was not alive when the bill was passed, many scholars believe that he was an essential figure that inspired public support and raised awareness for the abolition movement Paul Lovejoy states that Equiano was the ‘foremost outspoken advocate of the abolition movement.’ 4 This dissertation will discuss the influence and importance that Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, written by Himself, which was first published in 1789, had on promoting the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century. Olaudah Equiano died on the 31st March 1797, ten years prior to the Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade, which was passed in 1807. He made an outstanding contribution to that struggle.’ 2 He put his gifts and energy wholly at the service of his community in their struggle against slavery. Equiano concentrated single-mindedly on securing this next link. Abolition of the slave trade was the next link in the chain by which his community could haul themselves out of degradation to dignity. He had a fluent pen, a persuasive tongue and absolute integrity. ‘He emerged in his forties, as a capable and energetic publicist: a fluent writer and speaker, a campaigner prepared to travel wherever he was invited to present the abolitionist case. ‘…A Gentleman of the Committee… has said that I am more use to the Cause than half the people in the Country – I wish to God, I could be so.’ 1 Presentation of The Interesting Narrative and Press Reaction Slave Identity in The Interesting Narrative

The narrative of olaudah equiano