How An African Boy Sold Into Slavery Turned A Well-known Prince In England

The story how an eight-year-old African boy sold into slavery finally ended up as a prince in England has been told. William Ansah Sessarakoo was a young man born in Anomabo, Ghana in 1736.  His father, John Corrente, who was the head of Annamaboe’s government, and chief caboceer (one of the native officers liable for supplying African slaves to European traders), and an vital ally for anybody residing or buying and selling within the metropolis mistakenly sold him to slavery. How did it occur? Based on the version of the story posted on Wikipedia, Ansah’s father had first efficiently sent Ansah’s brother to France, he then determined to ship Ansah to England to gain an education, curry favour with the English, and function his eyes and ears in Europe.  Nevertheless, the ship captain entrusted with Ansah’s transport, dishonorably bought him into slavery in Barbados earlier than reaching England. Years later, a free Fante dealer found Ansah in Barbados and rapidly alerted John Corrente of his son’s destiny. Corrente petitioned the British to free Ansah, and the Royal African Firm, the English joint-stock firm working the slave trade, liberated Ansah and transported him to England.  In England, Ansah was acquired as a prince and gained the respect of London’s excessive society. Most notably, he watched a stay efficiency of Oroonoko, and, a lot to the viewers’s shock, fled the theatre in tears. The play depicted a wrongly enslaved African prince who possible reminded Ansah a lot of himself. Upon returning to Annamaboe, Ansah took up work as a author at Cape Coast Citadel, the first British fortification on the Gold Coast. After leaving Cape Coast on bad phrases, Ansah labored as a slave dealer. The small print of his dying are unknown. The story of his enslavement and rescue has been preserved in different types of artwork, together with drama, poetry, and painting. His portrait was additionally etched inThe Gents’s Journal.