as an ordained liberator. This would have been useful in fortifying his moral authority as an advocate of the eradication of slave trade. Despite the governor's exhortations, the bishop declined to ordain Vassa. However, in 1786, Vassa became involved with the Sierra Leone resettlement project. The government planned to send freed slaves to Sierra Leone to live and work. Vassa was the Commissary of Provisions and Stores for the Black Poor going to Sierra Leone. Vassa was sacked from his commissary position for bringing the corruption and immorality of the officers leading the naval expedition to the attention of the commissioners of the navy. The expedition failed due to the mismanagement Vassa had highlighted. He was eventually paid $£ 50$ for his services. In 1787, he co-formed the 'Sons of Africa', a group of black abolitionists who campaigned for an end to slavery through public speaking, writing anti-slavery letters, and by communicating and cooperating with other prominent (white) abolitionists of the period, such as Wilberforce, Sharpe and Clarkson. In 1788, Vassa led a delegation to the House of Commons to support William Dolben's Slave Limitations Act, a bill that sought to improve conditions on slave ships, by putting a limit on the number of slaves any one ship could carry.  
The next year, Vassa published his autobiography: The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African, Written by Himself. It became an important tool for the abolitionist movement and contributed immensely to the British Slave Trade Act of 1807 which abolished African slave trade. Vassa's autobiography was one of the earliest slave narratives. It gives us a harrowing, intimate, first-person account of the horrors of the Middle Passage and of slavery itself. It was an instant bestseller, was translated into different languages and made Vassa a wealthy man. Vassa left almost $£ 1,000$, a considerable sum in those days, in his will to his surviving daughter, Joanna Vassa, to inherit at 21 years of age.