In 1789, Olaudah Equiano published The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano. The book described enslavement, the Middle Passage, maritime labour, conversion, self-purchase, and abolitionist campaigning. Its unusual power lay in making a formerly enslaved African the narrator of imperial history.

Equiano's narrative shaped abolitionist literature and influenced later Black autobiographical and poetic traditions. Its fusion of testimony, travel writing, scripture, and political argument helped poets imagine the speaking self as evidence against dehumanising systems.