Background.

Olaudah Equiano (pronounced olah- oo-day ek-wee-ah-no), also known by his European name Gustavus Vassa, led a remarkable life as a slave in several English possessions, a veteran of the Seven Years' War, a widely traveled sailor, and an early abolitionist who worked to end the British slave trade. Equiano was born a member of the Ibo tribe in present-day Nigeria around 1745. At the age of eleven he was captured along with his sister by African slave traders. The two were soon separated as Equiano was traded from village to village, where he worked for a variety of masters. When he reached the coast of West Africa, Equiano was purchased by a European slaver and chained together with many other captives in the hot, stinking hold of a slave ship. He was then transported thousands of miles to the...