1762-1829
Abdul Rahman Ibrahima ibn Sori was a Fulani born in a village in Timbo, Guinea in 1762. He was known as the “Prince among the Slaves.” Abdur Rahman married a woman named Isabella. After arriving in Liberia Abdur-Rahman got cholera and died six weeks later.
Abdul Rahman Ibrahima ibn Sori was a Fulani born in a village in Timbo, Guinea in 1762. Ibrahima left Futa in 1774 to study in Mali at Timbuktu. He was kidnapped at the age of twenty-six in 1788 and sold to the British slave traders stationed on the Gambia. Ibrahima was eventually sold to Thomas Foster in Natchez, Mississippi, and was first a field hand then rose to become the plantation overseer. He was known as the “Prince among the Slaves.” As a young man Ibrahima was a Prince and a captain of his father’s army. In 1794, Abdur Rahman married a woman named Isabella. Together they had a large family, nine children five sons and four daughters. Ibrahima was known for practicing his Islamic religion. In 1828 Ibrahima raised thirty-five hundred dollars touring the northeast and Cincinnati to help free his family. In February 1829, Ibrahima and his wife sailed to Africa. Shortly after arriving in Liberia Abdur-Rahman got cholera and died six weeks later. The following year Thomas Foster died and his heirs sold two of Rahman’s children and five of his grandchildren to the American Colonization Society, which in turn reunited them with Isabella in Liberia. Ibrahima’s son Lee, his son Simon, Simon’s wife Hannah and their five children, Simon, Susan, Cresy, Nancy, and Hester made it to Liberia
Sources
Books:
- “Prince Among Slaves: The story of African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South.” By Terry Alford
- “Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade,” by Philip Curtin
- “Servants of Allah,” by Sylviane Diouf
- “African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles,” by Allan Austin
Links:
- https://www.upf.tv/films/prince-among-slaves/
- Prince amongst slaves full movie
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_Ibrahim_Ibn_Sori
- https://theafricaiknow.org/posts/the_fulani_prince.html
- https://www.history.com/news/african-prince-slavery-abdulrahman-ibrahim-ibn-sori
- https://docsouth.unc.edu/highlights/ibrahima.html
- http://www.muslimsinamerica.org/1800-s.html https://vimeo.com/108198580 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abdulrahman_Ibrahim_Ibn_Sori