by Robin C. Law
First published 2001
Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua was born free in Africa and served as a bodyguard to a local ruler in northern Benin. In the early 1840s, when he was about twenty, he was kidnapped and forced into the Atlantic slave trade. His captors transported him south through Togo to the port of Ouidah in Dahomey, then shipped him across the ocean to Brazil. After being sold multiple times between Rio merchants, Baquaqua found himself on a ship bound for New York City, where the New York Vigilance Society helped him escape. Robin Law and Paul Lovejoy have produced a meticulously researched account that follows Baquaqua's remarkable journey from Africa through Brazil to freedom in America. The editors traveled to Benin and Brazil to verify his story, collecting documents, oral histories, and photographs of the places he described. They discovered that Baquaqua spoke six languages and traveled extensively across continents, eventually converting to Christianity in Haiti and attending college in the United States. This edition includes previously unpublished letters and documents that expand upon the original 1854 narrative.
Genres: biography, historical-fiction, african-literature, non-fiction, biography-memoir, 19th-century, african-american-historical-fiction
Vibes: emotional, intimate, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, true-story
Setting: Africa, America, Benin, Brazil, Chatham (Ont.), Dahomey, Djougou (Benin), Haiti, New York (N.Y.), Pernambuco (Brazil), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Togo
Period: 19th-century, Early 1840s
272 pages · Paperback · Markus Wiener Publishers
Content warnings: slavery