A Slave's Story: Abd Rahman Ibrahima's Journey from Slavery to Freedom
Overview: The individual lives of most American slaves are lost to history. Diaries, letters, autobiographies, and oral histories allows us to explore the lives of a few, but we can seldom follow the lives of even the most articulate slaves back to Africa. The dark hold of the slave ship is an apt symbol for the obscurity from which the African came from a vital world in which he or she lived before enslavement. The story of Abd Rahman Ibrahima is an exception to the pattern of uncertainty. Adb Rahman Ibrahima began life as a member of the Muslim elite in Futa Jalon, Africa. He was the heir apparent to an African kingdom, but instead of becoming ruler, he spent most of his life as a slave in Mississippi. Through his story we learn about the African and Islamic background of an enslaved person, who Ibrahima was apart from being somebody’s “property.” We also learn about the ways that slavery did and did not allow space for an individual African to develop his own personality and live according to his own values in America. Finally with the freeing of Ibrahima and his return to Africa we learn something about the forces in America, in the South as well as the North, which moved against the prevailing current of prejudice and slavery.
1. Ibrahima: Resulting Enslavement: Abd Rahman Ibrahima, Natchez-Mississippi, Atlantic crossing, Thomas Foster, long hair, Muslim elite, tobacco fields, a degradation worse than losing his hair, Terry Alfon, Prince among Slaves, slipped away one night, living outdoors, Quran, long weeks in the forest, heart fixed on Allah, he knew what he must do.
2. Ibrahima's Early Life: The Fulbe, Muslim, Jalunke, animist, Futa Jalon, Pullo's distaste for fieldwork, Karamoko Alfa, jihad, Ibrahima Sori Mawdo, Muslim Fulbe took control of Futa Jalon (1730), Fulbe as slavers, slave trade routes, almaami, Timbo, a traditional Muslim education, tablets of wood, marabout, reading and writing, the Quran, omnipotence of God, forty-eight hours per day, Mungo park small school, kingdom of Macina, slave trade, Djenne, Mungo Park, large mosques, wide-reaching commercial network, Timbuktu, holy writ, Mansa Musa, pilgrimage, trading center, "caravans were continually arriving," returned to Timbo, forty thousand soldiers, Ibrahima, commander of cavalry, grave danger, Sulimina, trap for the enemy, " I have been defeated by a boy," Yorktown, "beardless boy," an unusual person, John Coates Cox, Ibrahima befriended Cox, sailed back to his own world, al-Husayn, Hebohs, a colonel, the Heboh ambush, son of a king, Mandinka slatees, slave traders, Hebohs sold Ibrahima, the Gambia River, Capt. John Nevin, Africa, now a chattel, chained below deck, a storm of memories and lessons, "Those who trust in Allah have no fear," "Allah is nearer to you than your jugular vein," Dominica, Thomas Irwin, New Orleans, Natchez Indians, Thomas Foster, Navaroo, Samba, Pine Ridge, $930, Ibrahima's transformation.
3. "Accepting" Enslavement: Sarah Foster, placing Sarah's head on his neck, "the man born to rule had agreed to be ruled," the psychological nature of slavery, what their masters required them to become, any measure of freedom, seemingly he abandoned his dignity, or did he, submission to God, Allah is with you, enslaved person, not simply a slave, far from merely servile, "Prince," cotton, familiar with this crop, Eli Whitney, Mulberry Grove, built a gin, revolutionized southern agriculture, ginning his cotton by 1795, Isabella, fine-looking woman, attraction between them, slave marriages, informal ceremonies, religious ceremonies, owners and slave marriages, proper ceremony, Simon, did remain a Muslim, heathenism, Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, Mandinkas, assigned to tend cattle, ran away, Thomas Bluett, a place to pray in, range of possibilities open to a Muslim slave, many allowed to worship freely, often became overseer, Five Pillars of Islam, five periods of prayer, alms for the poor, Ramadan, pilgrimage-or hajj- to Mecca, ways to Allah, Pinckney's Treaty of 1795, garden crops, "raise your own chicks," owners in "debt" to slaves, private economic activity, Natchez the market, middle-aged white man on a horse, "I came from Africa," Dr. John Cox, embracing Imbrahima, trying to purchase Ibrahima's freedom, Ibrahima's African background, more than one hundred slaves, five boys and four girls, slave housing, "like the walls were somewhere else," slave quarters, some substantial quarters, Mississippi Baptist Association, much in the Christian services that was familiar, Old Testament patriarchs, comparison to Susan Magoffin and Catholics, William Cox, Mississippi State Gazette, "man born to command, unjustly deprived of his liberty," note in Arabic, United States consul in Tangier-Morocco, negotiations, he would give the man his freedom, "countenance beaming with joy," letter from the secretary of state Henry Clay, document freeing his slave, deeply distressed, Andrew Marschalk, freeing Isabella, $8000, signing on to free Isabella, 140 citizens, Neptune, children, "genteelly dressed," "a look of silent agony in their eyes," "King of Timbuctoo," Benjamin Lundy, Genius of Universal Emancipation, met with President Adams, Adams declines, American Colonization Society, variety of strategies, "panorama" of Niagara, well known among abolitionist, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, stately bearing and the quiet dignity, Armistad, Uncle Tom's Cabin, enslaved person, Harriet, a fine cabin, Monrovia-Liberia, Isabella, story of terrible tragedy and profound triumph, seen wonders and known successes, overseer of great estate, Ibrahima would never tell these stories, his tough spiritual core, Cape Mesurado, resumed his Islamic worship, his fundamental faith: .Nothing will happen except that which Allah has decreed.
1. Ibrahima: Resulting Enslavement: Abd Rahman Ibrahima, Natchez-Mississippi, Atlantic crossing, Thomas Foster, long hair, Muslim elite, tobacco fields, a degradation worse than losing his hair, Terry Alfon, Prince among Slaves, slipped away one night, living outdoors, Quran, long weeks in the forest, heart fixed on Allah, he knew what he must do.
2. Ibrahima's Early Life: The Fulbe, Muslim, Jalunke, animist, Futa Jalon, Pullo's distaste for fieldwork, Karamoko Alfa, jihad, Ibrahima Sori Mawdo, Muslim Fulbe took control of Futa Jalon (1730), Fulbe as slavers, slave trade routes, almaami, Timbo, a traditional Muslim education, tablets of wood, marabout, reading and writing, the Quran, omnipotence of God, forty-eight hours per day, Mungo park small school, kingdom of Macina, slave trade, Djenne, Mungo Park, large mosques, wide-reaching commercial network, Timbuktu, holy writ, Mansa Musa, pilgrimage, trading center, "caravans were continually arriving," returned to Timbo, forty thousand soldiers, Ibrahima, commander of cavalry, grave danger, Sulimina, trap for the enemy, " I have been defeated by a boy," Yorktown, "beardless boy," an unusual person, John Coates Cox, Ibrahima befriended Cox, sailed back to his own world, al-Husayn, Hebohs, a colonel, the Heboh ambush, son of a king, Mandinka slatees, slave traders, Hebohs sold Ibrahima, the Gambia River, Capt. John Nevin, Africa, now a chattel, chained below deck, a storm of memories and lessons, "Those who trust in Allah have no fear," "Allah is nearer to you than your jugular vein," Dominica, Thomas Irwin, New Orleans, Natchez Indians, Thomas Foster, Navaroo, Samba, Pine Ridge, $930, Ibrahima's transformation.
3. "Accepting" Enslavement: Sarah Foster, placing Sarah's head on his neck, "the man born to rule had agreed to be ruled," the psychological nature of slavery, what their masters required them to become, any measure of freedom, seemingly he abandoned his dignity, or did he, submission to God, Allah is with you, enslaved person, not simply a slave, far from merely servile, "Prince," cotton, familiar with this crop, Eli Whitney, Mulberry Grove, built a gin, revolutionized southern agriculture, ginning his cotton by 1795, Isabella, fine-looking woman, attraction between them, slave marriages, informal ceremonies, religious ceremonies, owners and slave marriages, proper ceremony, Simon, did remain a Muslim, heathenism, Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, Mandinkas, assigned to tend cattle, ran away, Thomas Bluett, a place to pray in, range of possibilities open to a Muslim slave, many allowed to worship freely, often became overseer, Five Pillars of Islam, five periods of prayer, alms for the poor, Ramadan, pilgrimage-or hajj- to Mecca, ways to Allah, Pinckney's Treaty of 1795, garden crops, "raise your own chicks," owners in "debt" to slaves, private economic activity, Natchez the market, middle-aged white man on a horse, "I came from Africa," Dr. John Cox, embracing Imbrahima, trying to purchase Ibrahima's freedom, Ibrahima's African background, more than one hundred slaves, five boys and four girls, slave housing, "like the walls were somewhere else," slave quarters, some substantial quarters, Mississippi Baptist Association, much in the Christian services that was familiar, Old Testament patriarchs, comparison to Susan Magoffin and Catholics, William Cox, Mississippi State Gazette, "man born to command, unjustly deprived of his liberty," note in Arabic, United States consul in Tangier-Morocco, negotiations, he would give the man his freedom, "countenance beaming with joy," letter from the secretary of state Henry Clay, document freeing his slave, deeply distressed, Andrew Marschalk, freeing Isabella, $8000, signing on to free Isabella, 140 citizens, Neptune, children, "genteelly dressed," "a look of silent agony in their eyes," "King of Timbuctoo," Benjamin Lundy, Genius of Universal Emancipation, met with President Adams, Adams declines, American Colonization Society, variety of strategies, "panorama" of Niagara, well known among abolitionist, Arthur and Lewis Tappan, stately bearing and the quiet dignity, Armistad, Uncle Tom's Cabin, enslaved person, Harriet, a fine cabin, Monrovia-Liberia, Isabella, story of terrible tragedy and profound triumph, seen wonders and known successes, overseer of great estate, Ibrahima would never tell these stories, his tough spiritual core, Cape Mesurado, resumed his Islamic worship, his fundamental faith: .Nothing will happen except that which Allah has decreed.