Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori

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Abdulrahman Ibrahim Ibn Sori
Ibn Sori.jpg
Drawing of Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahim Sori. The Arabic inscription reads "His name is Abd al-Rahman".
Amir
Personal details
Born1762
Timbo
Died1829 (aged 67)
Monrovia, Liberia
Cause of deathFever
Spouse(s)
Isabella
​
​
(m. 1794; death 1829)​
Children9
Parent(s)

Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahima Sori (Arabic: عبد الرحمن ابن ابراهيم سوري) (1762–1829) was an African prince and military Amir (commander) who was captured in the Fouta Jallon region of Guinea, West Africa and sold to slave traders, who sent him to the United States in 1788.[1] Upon discovering his noble lineage, his slave master Thomas Foster, began referring to him as "Prince",[2] a title he kept until his final days. After spending 40 years in slavery, he was freed in 1828 by order of U.S. President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay after the Sultan of Morocco requested his release.[3]

Life[]

Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahim Sori was a Torodbe prince who was born in 1762 in the city of Timbo, now located in Guinea.[4] His father, Almami Ibrahim Sori, consolidated the Islamic confederation of Futa Jallon in 1776, with Timbo as its capital. Abdul-Rahman studied in Timbuktu, learning at least four African languages in addition to Arabic. On returning to his homeland in 1781, he was made member of his father's army, being made a regimental commander (Amir), for a campaign that conquered the Bambara. In 1788 he was given command of a 2000-man army, but during its campaigns, Abdul-Rahman was captured by other Africans and enslaved.[5] He was sold to British slave traders who brought him to Natchez, Mississippi where he labored on the cotton plantation of Thomas Foster for more than thirty-eight years before gaining his freedom.[6] In 1794 he married Isabella, another slave of Foster's, and eventually fathered a large family of nine children.[7]

By using his knowledge of growing cotton in Futa Jallon, Abdul-Rahman rose to a position of authority on the plantation and became the de facto foreman. This granted him the opportunity to grow his own vegetable garden and sell at the local market. During this time, he met an old acquaintance, Dr. John Cox, an Irish surgeon who had served on an English ship, and had become the first white man to reach Timbo after being abandoned by his ship and then falling ill. Cox stayed ashore for six months and was taken in by Abdul-Rahman's family, where he was tasked to teach Abdul-Rahman English. Cox appealed to Foster to sell his "Prince" so he could return to Africa. However, Foster would not budge, since he viewed Abdul-Rahman as indispensable to the Foster farm. Dr. Cox continued, until his death in 1816, to seek Ibrahim's freedom, to no avail. After Cox died, his son continued the cause to free Abdul-Rahman.

In 1826, Abdul-Rahman wrote a letter to his relatives in Africa. A local newspaperman, Andrew Marschalk, who was Dutch, sent the letter to United States Senator Thomas Reed from Mississippi, who was in town at the time, and Reed forwarded it to the U.S. Consulate in Morocco. Since Abdul-Rahman wrote in Arabic, Marschalk and the U.S. government assumed that he was a Moor. After the Sultan of Morocco Abderrahmane read the letter, he asked President Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay to release Abdul-Rahman. In 1829, Thomas Foster agreed to the release of Abdul-Rahman, without payment, with the stipulation that he return to Africa and not live as a free man in America.

Before leaving the US, Abdul-Rahman and his wife went to various states and Washington, D.C. where he met with President Adams in person. He solicited donations, through the press, personal appearances, the American Colonization Society and politicians, to free his family back in Mississippi. Word got back to Foster, who considered this a breach of the agreement. Abdul-Rahman's actions and freedom were also used against President John Quincy Adams by future president Andrew Jackson during the presidential election.[8]

After ten months, Abdul-Rahman and Isabella had raised only half the funds to free their children, and instead left for Monrovia, Liberia, without their children. He lived for four months before contracting a fever and died at the age of 67. He never saw Fouta Djallon or his children again.[9]

The funds that Abdul-Rahman and Isabella raised only bought the freedom of two sons and their families. They were reunited with Isabella in Monrovia. Thomas Foster died the same year as Abdul-Rahman. Foster's estate, including Abdul-Rahman's other children and grandchildren, was divided among Foster's heirs and scattered across Mississippi and the South.

Abdul-Rahman wrote two autobiographies. A drawing of him is displayed in the Library of Congress. In 2007, Andrea Kalin directed Prince Among Slaves, a film portraying the life of Abdul-Rahman based on an earlier biography of the same name by Terry Alford, narrated by Mos Def and produced for and aired on PBS.

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ Diouf 1998, p. 27–28.
  2. ^ Austin 1997, p. 71.
  3. ^ Diouf 1998, p. 137.
  4. ^ Austin 1997, p. 69.
  5. ^ Shareef, Muhammad (2004). "The Lost and Found Children of Abraham in Africa and the American Diaspora" (PDF). siiasi.org. Sankore Institute of Islamic African Studies International (SIIASI). Retrieved 12 November 2016.
  6. ^ Austin 1997, p. 65.
  7. ^ "Prince Among Slaves". PBS. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008.
  8. ^ Madison Gray (1 February 2008). "A 'Lost' African Prince Found". Time. Retrieved 2021-11-12.
  9. ^ "40 Years a Slave: The Extraordinary Tale of an African Prince Stolen from His Kingdom". History.com. Retrieved 2021-11-09.

Bibliography[]

  • Austin, Allan (1997). African Muslims in Antebellum America (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91269-5.
  • Diouf, Sylviane (1998). Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York and London: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-1905-8.

External links[]

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