Ottobah Cugoano was an Africa

Africa

Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...

n abolitionist who was active in England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 in the latter half of the eighteenth century.

Early life

Cugoano was born in 1757 near Ajumako

Ajumako

Ajumako is a town in Ghana. It is the capital of Ajumako-Enyan-Esiam district. It is famous for being the birthplace of Ottobah Cuguano, an abolitionist of the 18th century....

, modern day Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

. He was a Fanti. His family was friends with the local chief. At the age of 13 he was sold into slavery and sent to Grenada

Grenada

Grenada is an island country and Commonwealth Realm consisting of the island of Grenada and six smaller islands at the southern end of the Grenadines in the southeastern Caribbean Sea...

.He remained in the West Indies until he was purchased by an English

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 merchant. He was taken to England and in 1772 and was baptized with the name John Stuart. He obtained his freedom in England.

Abolitionist

In 1784, he was employed as a servant by the artists Richard Cosway

Richard Cosway

Richard Cosway was a leading English portrait painter—more accurately a miniaturist—of the Regency era. He was a contemporary of John Smart, George Engleheart, William Wood, and Richard Crosse...

 and his wife, Maria

Maria Cosway

Maria Cosway was an Anglo-Italian artist, who exhibited at the Royal Academy of Arts in London. She also worked in France, where she cultivated a large circle of friends and clients, and later in Italy. She commissioned the first portrait of Napoleon to be seen in England...

. This was a turning point in Cugoano’s life, since through the Cosways he came to the attention of leading British political and cultural figures of the time, including poet William Blake

William Blake

William Blake was an English poet, painter, and printmaker. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age...

 and the Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales

Prince of Wales is a title traditionally granted to the heir apparent to the reigning monarch of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the 15 other independent Commonwealth realms...

. Together with Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a prominent African involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807...

 and other educated Africans living in Britain, he was active in the Sons of Africa

Sons of Africa

Sons of Africa were an 18th century British group, who campaigned to end slavery.Their members included Ottobah Cugoano, Olaudah Equiano and other leading members of London's black community...

, an abolitionist group that wrote frequently to the newspapers of the day, condemning the practice of slavery. In 1786 he played a key role in the case of Henry Demane, a kidnapped black man who was to be shipped back to the West Indies. He contacted Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp

Granville Sharp was one of the first English campaigners for the abolition of the slave trade. He also involved himself in trying to correct other social injustices. Sharp formulated the plan to settle blacks in Sierra Leone, and founded the St. George's Bay Company, a forerunner of the Sierra...

, a well known Abolitionist

Abolitionism

Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...

 and was able to have Demane removed before the ship sailed.

In 1787, possibly with the help of his friend Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano also known as Gustavus Vassa, was a prominent African involved in the British movement towards the abolition of the slave trade. His autobiography depicted the horrors of slavery and helped influence British lawmakers to abolish the slave trade through the Slave Trade Act of 1807...

, he published an attack on slavery entitled Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species (1787). By now a devout Christian

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

, his work was rich with religious undertones. The work calls for the complete abolition of slavery and immediate emancipation

Emancipation

Emancipation means the act of setting an individual or social group free or making equal to citizens in a political society.Emancipation may also refer to:* Emancipation , a champion Australian thoroughbred racehorse foaled in 1979...

 of all slaves. It argues that the slave's duty is to escape from slavery, and that force should be used to prevent further enslavement. The narrative was sent to King George III

George III of the United Kingdom

George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...

 and other leading politicians. It failed to persuade the king

Monarch

A monarch is the person who heads a monarchy. This is a form of government in which a state or polity is ruled or controlled by an individual who typically inherits the throne by birth and occasionally rules for life or until abdication...

 to change his opinion; George III, along with much of the royal family

British Royal Family

The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...

 remained against the abolition of the slave trade

Middle Passage

The Middle Passage was the stage of the triangular trade in which millions of people from Africa were shipped to the New World, as part of the Atlantic slave trade...

.

Four years later, in 1791, Cugoano released a shorter version of his book, addressed to the "Sons of Africa." In it, he expressed qualified support for the failed British efforts to establish a colony for London’s black poor in Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone

Sierra Leone , officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Guinea to the north and east, Liberia to the southeast, and the Atlantic Ocean to the west and southwest. Sierra Leone covers a total area of and has an estimated population between 5.4 and 6.4...

 and called for the establishment of schools in Britain especially for African students.

Nothing is known of Cugoano after the release of his book.

External links

• Narrative of the Enslavement of Ottobah Cugoano, a Native of Africa. London: Printed for the Author and Sold by Hatchard and Co., 1825.
• Brycchan Carey's collection of resources for the study of Cugoano
• Engraving by Cosway which may be of Cugoano BBC
  BBC
  The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
  
  
• Selected Passages from Narrative of the Enslavement of a Native of Africa