A new edition of one of the most celebrated slave narratives, written by a former slave who went on to become a leading figure in the British abolitionist movement~Equiano's personal account of the horrors of slavery is also an exciting adventure story of his travels on the high seas, and as an explorer and merchant in the Caribbean, the Arctic, and America~Uses the lively 1789 first edition text~Brycchan Carey's introduction surveys Equiano's role in the abolition debate, the book's style and structure, recent debates about Equiano's birthplace and identity, and the book's increasingly central position among the great works of eighteenth-century literature~Includes explanatory notes, a glossary of unfamiliar terms, and a gazetteer of places mentioned