Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped at age 11 from his home in Africa and experienced the horrors of the Middle Passage while being transported on a slave ship. He eventually learned to read and write and published an influential biography called The Interesting Narrative of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavas Vassa, The African, advocating for personal freedom and religious tolerance as key Enlightenment ideals. Despite once being enslaved himself, Equiano also unfortunately engaged in the slave trade for a period of time.