The African Homeland of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima, 1828

Cyrus Griffin, editor, Southern Galaxy, Natchez, Mississippi, May 29, June 5 & 12, July 5, 1828

Enslaved for forty years in Mississippi, freed in 1828, and speaking to abolitionist groups throughout the Northeast before his sponsored emigration to Liberia, Abdul Rahman was likely “the best known Afro- American in the country” at the time and “the only  man freed from slavery to be the subject of a  series of articles in an antebellum Southern newspaper,” the articles presented here. 1

Born around 1762, the son of a Fula leader, Rahman was raised in the Futa Jalon highlands of present-day Guinea (see maps, pp. 2-3). An  educated  Muslim   and   trained  military  leader,  Rahman  was captured  in his mid twenties as a war prisoner, sold to the  British, transported  to  the  Americas,  and   eventually  purchased  by  a Mississippi  slaveholder.  Through  a  remarkable  chain  of  events, including  the  chance meeting in Natchez with an Englishman  who had met Rahman in Africa, Rahman was freed and, with the support of abolitionists and the African  Colonization Society, emigrated to Liberia with his  wife. Unfortunately, Rahman died several months after his arrival and never revisited Futa Jalon, his homeland, nor did he live to see the arrival of his children the next year.

Cyrus  Griffin, the author of  the  three newspaper  articles, was  a recent arrival in Mississippi from New England and supported Rah- man’s emancipation.

    PRINCE ABDUHL RAHAHMAN          

It may be thought — it has even been hinted, that we have already attached too much consequence to the incidents of this man’s life.2  We cannot help it. We are satisfied from incontrovertible testimony of his regal parentage and his civil and military eminence in his native country. It is equally certain that he was overthrown by misfortune. — We have all seen him bearing up against the sad mutation with philosophic fortitude. We know him to be a man of intelligence, and what is more a man of integrity. Such a character is sufficient to interest us. We freely acknowledge we have sympathized in his misfortunes, and we now rejoice in the prospect of his being speedily restored to his native country. We cannot but express a feeling of respect to his benevolent master for his kindness to this unfortunate man during his servitude, and for his last and kindest act in bestowing upon him his liberty. We at the same time cannot but acknowledge our gratitude to an overruling Providence in remembering this old man and granting him the only remaining, and, to human nature, perhaps the sweetest consolation, in the closing scene of life, of sleeping with his fathers.

It is perhaps due to candor to say that we have not had the pleasure of being instrumental in Prince’s3

manumission [emancipation]. It is perhaps equally due to justice to say that much may be attributed to the

exertions of Col. Marschalk.4  We now proceed to give to the public a brief historical sketch, the substance of which we received from Prince himself.

Prince Abduhl, or Abd-ool, Ra- hahman, was born in 1762, at Tom- buctoo [present-day Mali], the capital of the country over which his grand- father was at that time King.

Footah Jallo, the country in which Prince resided after receiving his edu- cation, was originally in some degree at least, tributary to Tombuctoo as appears from the fact that the first King of that country was appointed by the King of Tombuctoo.

Alman Abrahim, the uncle of Prince, was the first King. He became insane and was deposed. The father of Prince, by the same name succeeded

to the throne. At the demise of this monarch, during a civil war, the cousin of Prince, Abduhl Lahee triumphed over his brother Sahdoo, who was slain in battle, and wore the crown for a few short days, when he, in turn, shared the fate of Sahdoo, and gave place to a third brother, Abduhl Gahdrie, who we believe is the present reigning monarch.

Prince recollects nothing of consequence that occurred during his boyhood. At the age of seven, he was placed at school at Tombuctoo. Here, and at Jennah he completed his education, and at the age of seventeen, at which time his father was King of 

Footah Jallo, he received an appointment in the army. This in his native country is the only path to fame. At the age of nineteen he was sent out with a detachment of troops under the command of his uncle Soliman against the King of Bambarra, who was then in field. Soliman was killed during the first engagement and the command devolved on Prince, who immediately ordered a retreat. Prince’s extreme youth rendered his competency to command doubtful to the troops, and they were about to desert him and return home.

He persuaded them, however, to consent to remain three days and put his abilities to the test. — An armistice was agreed upon between the belligerents for the same length of time, under a false pretense that Prince wished advice from his father in relation to the terms on which he might treat with his enemy; but his real object was to prepare for a decisive battle. He retreated still farther into the interior, to the border of an extensive prairie or land covered with a species of cane. A road was then opened into the...TO BE CONTINUED