THE LIFE OF OLAUDAH EQUIANO ; The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, The African. Written by Himself / Edited by Joanna Brooks / The Lakeside Press

R. R. Donnelley & Sons Company / The Lakeside Press, 2004. Cloth. Very Fine/None. Color plates. 16mo, green cloth with gold lettering on spine and publisher's device & rules on front cover, color frontispiece of Olaudah Equiano, 58 additional illustrations (many being full color glossy plates) & maps, Historical Introduction, decorative green endpapers, liii + 406 pages + [2] Image Credits + [2] Colophon. Olaudah Equiano (c. 1745, Nigeria? - London, 1797, London) known in his lifetime as Gustavus Vassa was a prominent African in London, a freed slave who supported the British movement to end the slave trade. His autobiography, published in 1789, helped in the creation of the Slave Trade Act 1807 which ended the African trade for Britain and its colonies.<br /> <br /> In London, Equiano was part of the Sons of Africa, an abolitionist group composed of prominent Africans living in Britain, and he was active among leaders of the anti-slave trade movement in the 1780s. He published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (1789), which depicted the horrors of slavery. It went through nine editions and aided passage of the British Slave Trade Act of 1807, which abolished the African slave trade.<br /> <br /> As a free man, Equiano had a stressful life; he had suffered suicidal thoughts before he became a Protestant Christian and found peace in his faith. After settling in London, Equiano married an English woman named Susannah Cullen in 1792 and they had two daughters. He died in 1797 in London.--Wikipedia<br /> <br /> EXCEPTIONALLY INTERESTING & VERY FINE COPY!