Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua His Passage from Slavery to Freedom in Africa and America

This is one of the few biographies of a slave born in Africa who has left a detailed account of his life under slavery in the Americas. His adventures brought him to Rio de Janeiro, New York, Boston, Canada, and Britain; Baquaqua knew Arabic, Dendi, and probably Hausa, Portuguese, English and French as well. He was enslaved in northern Benin in the early 1840's 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 a port in Dahomey, and shipped to Brazil. Here he was sold and re-sold, and ultimately bought by a Rio merchant who brought him 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.Lovejoy, Paul E. is the author of 'Biography of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua His Passage from Slavery to Freedom in Africa and America' with ISBN 9781558762480 and ISBN 1558762485.