Description
Book SynopsisThis is the biography of an American slave who was born in Africa. His adventures took him to Rio de Janeiro, New York, Boston, Canada, and Britain; he knew Arabic, Dendi, probably Hausa, Portuguese, English, and French. In recent times scholars raised the doubt that such biographies of slaves born in Africa were only partially true; so, Law and Lovejoy traveled to Djougou and Brazil and followed the traces of Baquaqua via various collections, documents, oral history and written reports. They photographed the sites described by Baquaqua and included them in the book. They have also added several letters and other documents to the 1854 original edition.
Baquaqua was enslaved in northern Benin in the early 1840s when he was about 20. At the time he was a bodyguard for the ruler of a subordinate town. He was abducted, taken south through Togo to Ouidah, a port in Dahomey, shipped to Pernambuco in Brazil, and sold to a merchant from Rio. This merchant then sold him to another Rio merchant, who took him by ship to New York City, where a little-known black group, the New York Vigilance Society, convinced him to jump ship. He escaped to Boston and traveled to Haiti, the only free Black state, where he was picked up by the Free Baptist Mission. Here Baquaqua converted to Christianity. He later returned to the U.S. and attended college, and traveled extensively.
Trade ReviewBaquaqua, born in the town of Djougou (in northern Benin) in the 1820s and raised as a Muslim, lived a busy life as an ironsmith and palace servant. Then he was kidnapped and transported to Recife in about 1845. In 1847 he arrived in New York and there was able to gain his freedom. He then went to Haiti for two years, returned to New York, and in 1850 began studies at Central College. This exemplary volume is worthy of study and emulation.... Extensive detail and clear overview of the present edition contrast powerfully with the previous versions."" - International Journal of African Historical Studies
