From African Prince to Mississippi Slave: Abdul Rahman Ibrahima
In the summer of 1829, Abdul Rahman Ibrahima returned to Africa after 40 years of enslavement in the United States.
In the summer of 1829, Abdul Rahman Ibrahima returned to Africa after 40 years of enslavement in the United States.
Having obtained his freedom via the agency of President John Quincy Adams, he set off on the voyage that was supposed to take him to his birthplace in Timbuktu, in what is now Mali.
However, he made it only as far as the American colony in Monrovia, Liberia, where he died July 6, 1829, shortly after his arrival.
Much of what is currently known about Abdul Rahman Ibrahima comes from a pamphlet titled "A Statement with Regard to the Moorish Prince, Abduhl Rahhahman," written by Thomas H. #Gallaudet, one of the co-founders of the American School for the Deaf.
According to this account, during Ibrahima's childhood in Africa, his father was sent to conquer the "Soosoos" (also spelled Susu or Soso) and founded a new capital of the kingdom of Futa Jallon in a town called Timbo.
Futa Jallon - The Fulani Kingdom Of West Africa (1725–1896)
Ibrahima therefore moved from Timbuktu to Timbo at age five, returning to Timbuktu to attend school at age twelve.
Around 1788, at the age of approximately 26, Ibrahima was taken captive after a raid against a rival tribe, the "Hebohs."
Ibrahima's captors sold him into slavery, after surviving the Middle Passage, he was auctioned to Colonel Thomas Foster, on whose Natchez, Mississippi, cotton plantation he became a field hand.
Continue Reading: From African Prince to Mississippi Slave
docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/ibr…
Continue Reading: From African Prince to Mississippi Slave
docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/ibr…
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