Slavery+in+West+Africa+and+the+Americas

In Africa, social diversity and the domination of masters over slaves was a big part of many societies. Ahmad Baba (1556-1627), an Islamic scholar in Timbuktu, answered questions about official and unofficial slavery in Sudan of West Africa and in the Hausa states of Kano and Katsina. Some questions were about what he thought about how slaves imported from Sudan lands such as Bornu, Kano, Goa, Songhay, Katsina, and others, who were acknowledged to be Muslims. Ahmad answered saying that close to the lands stated are lands where unbelievers live and some of the unbelievers are under Muslim protection and pay them taxes. A common practice of people in Hausaland is that sometimes there is war between Muslim sultans of the lands and they take as many prisoners as they can and then sell captives even though they are free-born Muslims. This causes the people who become captives in a state of unbelief to become someone else’s property, while those who have become Muslim because it was their own choice may not be possessed.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, from Bondu, was enslaved and transported to Maryland. People of Ayuba’s class were free to devote themselves to the study of Islamic texts while other slaves from Bondu had to do much of the hard work. An Englishman, made Ayuba’s name Job Solomon, and recorded Ayuba’s life story which goes like this. Job’s father, one day, sent him to sell two Negros, to buy paper as well as other things at an English ship at the Gambia River. His father warned him not to go across the river into Mandingo territory but he did it anyway where he sold his two Negroes for cows. While returning home, he stopped at a friend’s house and was seen raising his arms by a company of Mandingoes who quickly came in and restrained him and his interpreter. They shaved their heads to make them look as if they were slaves, and then sent them to Captain Pike at Gambia who purchased them. Job told Captain Pike that he came to trade with him a few days earlier and what manner had been taken so the captain gave him free leave to redeem himself. During this time he sent a friend of his father’s to inform him of what happened but it would take two weeks to get there and the ship was leaving in one week, so Job was brought back on board with other slaves and taken to Mr. Vachell Denton in Annapolis, Maryland. Mr. Denton sold Job to Mr. Tolsey who made him work in tobacco production but saw that it was too much work for him so he made him tend cattle instead. A little white boy watched Job and when Job would go to the woods to pray instead of tending to the cattle’s needs he would through dirt in his face an mock him. This disturbed him and added to his misfortunes, so he decided to take a risk and travel through the woods where he ended up in the County of Kent. He was shortly taken to jail because he was not know in the county and was not able to give an account of himself. The Englishman and several other gentlemen heard of Job and asked speak with him but when they found out he could not speak English they talked and made signs to him. Job wrote a line and when he read it aloud the words Allah and Mohammad stood out to the men and when they offered him wine he refused so they perceived that he was a Muslim. They could not figure out what country he was from or how he got there but they could tell he was no common slave. While Job was confined in prison an old Negro man came to talk to him because they both could speak the Wolof language, where the man found out who owned Job and why he left his master. So the man wrote to Mr. Tolsey, who brought Job back home with him but was much nicer to him allowing Job to have a place to pray in as well as some other conveniences but to Job, it still was not good enough. He wrote a letter to his father to let him know his misfortunes and to try to find means of redeeming himself. A man named James Oglethorpe read the letter and bought Job from his master. Job’s benefactors took him to England where he attracted attention from local men who took up a collection to by his freedom and pay his debts which allowed him to return home to Gambia.

Stephanie Ruby