In 1787, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano, a freed Ghanaian-born abolitionist living in London, published 'Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species.' This was the first published book by an African to demand the total abolition of the slave trade and the emancipation of all enslaved people. Cugoano, who had been kidnapped and sold into slavery at age 13, became a leading voice in the British abolitionist movement, using his firsthand experiences to expose the atrocities of the Middle Passage and plantation life. His work circulated among British intellectuals and politicians, helping to shift public opinion against the slave trade.

Cugoano's 'Thoughts and Sentiments' is a foundational text of African diasporic literature, prefiguring the slave narrative genre. His eloquent denunciation of slavery influenced later writers such as Olaudah Equiano and Ottobah Cugoano's work directly inspired the poetry of early Black British authors and abolitionist poets like William Cowper. The book remains a landmark in the literary history of Black resistance and abolitionism.