In Olaudah Equiano's autobiography, The Interesting Narrative and Other Writings, identity plays a central role in how Equiano describes himself and his past. Throughout the story, the author struggles in various ways to grasp aspects of his identity, torn between a former African slave and a free Englishman. This article will seek to explain how he confronts this problem of self-identification by examining his personal narrative. Before delving into the author's identity struggle, we must understand his past. Born in Eboe in 1745, Olaudah Equiano was kidnapped and sold into slavery at the age of 11. After spending a brief period in Virginia, the author traveled the world on various slave and naval ships, his travels taking him to many different locations, such as England, the Caribbean, and the southern United States. . Michael Henry Pascal, one of his masters from this period, gave the author the name Gustavas Vassa, which he himself would bear for the rest of his life. During this period, he also converted to Christianity. After his travels with Pascal, Robert King, a Quaker from Philadelphia, purchased the author in 1763. Under King, he worked as a clerk as well as on King's trading sloops. Through minor trading authorized by King, he managed to earn and save enough money to purchase his freedom in 1766. Shortly afterward, the author moved to England in 1767, where he attended school and works as an assistant to scientist Dr. Charles Irving. As a free man, the author traveled widely, including on a 1773 expedition with Irving in search of a Northeast Passage between Europe and Asia, as well as to the Mediterranean and the Antilles. One of these trips included a trip to Africa in order to convert Africans to Chris...... middle of paper ......hor Hor's Christian beliefs became so strong that he traveled from England to Africa in order to convert his fellow men. Africans to Christianity, a recognition that he has completely renounced his former beliefs as well as a conviction that Africans, with whom he intermittently identifies, should do the same. The author's struggle to realize his identity is a microcosm of how slaves were reconciled. their past, as Africans, with their present, as slaves or residents of the New World or Europe. As the author demonstrates, for some, this internal identity conflict may never be resolved. No phrase sums up this struggle better than the last line of a letter sent by the author to the Queen near the end of the story, which contains the salutation "I am Your Majesty's most devoted and dedicated servant, GUSTAVUS VASSA, the oppressed Ethiopian.” (232).