Washington, aformerslave who taught himself to read and later advised presidents, and the biblical character Joseph, who persevered though his brothers sold him into slavery.
And "Beloved, " starring Oprah Winfrey and based on Toni Morrison's novel of the same name, is the story of aformerslave visited by the ghost of the daughter that she killed.
"I was soon put down under the decks, " wrote Olaudah Equiano, aformerslave whose account of his experiences -- "The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano" -- caused a sensation when published in 1789.
But Mexico's Reforma newspaper has accused him of being aformer Argentine intelligence officer who ran aslave labour unit during the country's military dictatorship 20 years ago.
There was also no sign on Tuesday of an accord on another issue at the conference -- African demands that formerslave states make a formal apology for some 400 years of human trafficking up to the early 19th century, during which some 12 million people where shipped in chains to the Americas.