click image for close-up This portrait of Olaudah Equiano was used as the frontispiece (illustration opposite a book's title page) of his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of ...

Equiano was born in Essaka, a small village in Benin, in 1745. His father was an Embrenche, an elder or chief, and oversaw disputes and punishments. He had five brothers and one sister, and was ...