Is Equiano's narrative a biography or autobiography? Why?

The first autobiography written by a former slave, Olaudah Equiano's The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano is also one of the most widely-read and well-regarded of the slave narrative genre. It was published in 1789, at a time when its author was well-known in English abolitionist circles. The work is now represented in a multitude of literary and historical anthologies, and has garnered significant critical attention in the centuries since its publication. It was successful in mobilizing the abolitionist sentiment that would secure the end of the slave trade in England in 1807. (Slavery itself was not legal in England, but businessmen were still allowed to trade slaves.) The author makes clear that such abolition was his primary purpose in crafting the work, and so by this measure, it was a great success.

Equiano wrote this narrative, thus it is an autobiography.