The slave narrative is an autobiographical genre with the explicit purposes of informing audiences about the cruelty of the practice of slavery, mobilizing readers to act against the practice, and intervening in the representation of enslaved Black people (including the author). Early work by British writers such as James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw and American writers such as Phillis Wheatley are some of the earliest works published by Black people in Anglo-American culture, making slave narratives foundational texts in literature in English by people of African descent.

As literary texts, slave narratives include generic conventions from multiple forms, including memoir, religious conversion narratives, and accounts of captivity. Writers of the slave narrative use these conventions to demonstrate the intellectual ability of people of African descent, particularly important in a world in which Black people were assumed not to be capable of the rational and creative thought required to produce literature. Equiano uses his text to make an explicit case against slavery, but he also uses it as a means to demonstrate his skills as a writer in English.