Olaudah Equiano 

Olaudah [Gustavus Vassa] Equiano (c.1745-1797) was a former slave in the Caribbean and in the American South who was best known for his Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano (London, 1789), one of the earliest and most important texts describing the horrors of the Atlantic slave trade in the eighteenth century. Once in England, he settled for a time at Cambridge, where he met and married a white woman (Susanna Cullen). His final years were spent in London, where he continued to serve as one of the most able spokesmen for the cause of the African slave, promoting the sale of his Narrative at the same time. The church in Brown Street, as demonstrated by John Saffery’s invitation to Vassa and his dining with him in his home, actively supported the abolitionist movement, being instrumental, through its support of the BMS missionaries in Jamaica, such as William Knibb, in promoting the passage of the Abolition Bill in 1833.