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Olaudah Equiano Painted after he had bought his freedom, this portrait evokes Equiano’s successful acculturation to eighteenth-century English customs. In his Interesting Narrative, Equiano wrote that he “looked upon [the English] . . . as men superior to us [Africans], and therefore I had the stronger desire to resemble them, to imbibe their spirit and imitate their manners.” Library of Congress.