Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa) was kidnapped from his African village at the age of eleven. Shipped through the ardous "Middle Passge" of the Altantic Ocean. More than two centuries later, this work is recognized not only as one of the first works written in English by a former slave, but perhaps more important as the paradigm of the slave narrative, a new literary genre. His life on the high seas, which included not only travels throughout the Americas, Turkey and the Mediterranean; but also participation in major naval battles during the French and Indian War, as well as in the seardh for a northwest passage led by the Phipps expedition of 1772-1773. Equiano served the British navy from 1858-1862 during the Seven Years War. In the hopes of being freed, he was illegally sold to another man. He was robbed of the money he waved by two sailors when they beat him pretty bad ...
