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| Abduhl Rahhahman by H. Inman, engraved by T. Illman. Photo from the Library of Congress. Public Domain Image. (Click on image to enlarge.) |
Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori (1762-1829)
Posted on August 5, 2024
Contributed by: Roscoe
Barnes III
Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima Sori was an African prince
who was captured in 1788 and sold as an enslaved man in Mississippi. He spent
40 years enslaved on a plantation in the Natchez area before he gained his
freedom in 1828.
Abdul Rahman was born in 1762 in Timbuktu, a city in the
current western African country of Mali. He grew up in Timbo, which was located
in the Futa Jalon highlands of Guinea. His father, Ibrahima Sori Barry Mawdo,
was a king who ruled as a political and religious leader in Futa Jalon.
At the age of 12, Abdul Rahman left home to study in the
mosques at Timbuktu and Djenne in Mali, where he excelled in many subjects. By
the time he completed his education, he could read and write in Arabic and
speak five African languages. The prince returned home to join his father’s
army and became a colonel by the age of 26.
In 1788, while returning home to celebrate a victory, he
and some of his soldiers were ambushed by a rival ethnic group, the Hebohs. Abdul
Rahman was captured and sold to slave traders. After being shipped to the
United States, he was sold to a farmer named Thomas Foster, who owned a
plantation near Washington, a village northeast of Natchez, Mississippi.
See the full article at this link:
https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/prince-abdul-rahman-ibrahima-sori-1762-1829/
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