1788.The
slave ship Africa set sail from the Gambia River, its hold laden with a
profitable but highly perishable cargo—hundreds of men, women and
children bound in chains--headed for American shores. Eight months
later, a handful of survivors found themselves for sale in Natchez,
Mississippi. On the slave auction block, one of them, a 26-year-old
male named Abdul Rahman Ibrahima made an astonishing claim to Thomas
Foster, the plantation owner who purchased him at auction: As an
African prince, highly educated and heir to a kingdom, this bedraggled
African’s father would gladly pay gold for his return. Foster dismissed
the claim as a tissue of lies.
1788.
The slave ship Africa set sail from the Gambia River, its hold laden
with a profitable but highly perishable cargo-- hundreds of men, women
and children bound in chains—headed for American shores. Eight months
later, a handful of survivors found themselves for sale in Natchez,
Mississippi. On the slave auction block, one of them, a 26-years-old
male named Abdul Rahman Ibrahima is an African Prince.
);)
);)
