Google on Monday celebrated former Nigerian slave, Olaudah Equiano, with a doodle on his 272nd posthumous birthday.
The changes made on Google logo are called doodle used to celebrate anniversaries, holidays, and the lives of famous artists, and other prominent individuals.
Known as Gustavus Vassa for the most part of his life, Equiano was prominent was a freed slave whose autobiography published in 1789 helped to end the slave trade in Britain.
His early life is unclear due to the absence of records, but he recounted how he was kidnapped with his sister when he was 11.
He was sold by local slave traders and shipped across the Atlantic to Barbados and then Virginia.
Equiano was sold to Michael Pascal, a lieutenant in the Royal Navy, In Virginia, who renamed him Gustavus Vassa after the 16th-century Swedish king.
He travelled the oceans with Pascal for eight years, during which time he found Christianity and was baptised as well as learned how to read and write.
Equiano was later sold to a ship captain in London, who took him to Montserrat, where he was sold to the prominent merchant Robert King.
King set Equiano to work on his shipping routes and in his stores, working as a deckhand, valet and barber whilst also earning money by trading on the side.
In 1765, when Equiano was about 20 years old, King promised that he could buy his freedom for £40, worth about £6000 in the present day.
Equiano published his autobiography, The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano or Gustavus Vassa, the African, in 1789.
His personal account of slavery, his journey of advancement, and his experiences as a black immigrant caused a sensation on publication.
The book fuelled the growing anti-slavery movement in Britain, Europe, and the New World.
His account surprised many with the quality of its imagery, description, and literary style.
In 1792, Equiano married an Englishwoman named Susanna Cullen, and they had two daughters.
He died on March 31, 1797, at the age of 52.
