Ecciauno, African. Self made man. Carrett V.

Olauda Ecviano (c. 1745-1797) was born a slave, managed to buy out of captivity, became a sailor and merchant, survived many adventures on land and at sea, participated in the seven-year war and the polar expedition, in addition he visited the hairdresser, servant, overseer on the plantation and government commissar. He devoted the last part of his life to the struggle for the abolition of slavery, then his famous "amazing narrative about the life of Olauda Eccanano, or Gustav Vasa, the African, written by him himself appeared."

The book made it the first black by the English -language writer and made an amazing impression on his contemporaries, after only five years withstanding eight reprints - an unprecedented case for that era. talks about the daily life of Britain and the West Indies of the second half of the 18th century-on military and merchant ships, on slave-owning plantations and in the Arctic expedition; writes about book publishing and journalism, about religious confrontation in England and the intricacies of European politics; On the origin of the struggle against slavery and stormy debate in the British parliament and in the press.