From Slavery to Freedom

Abram Petrovich Gannibal

Was an African prince, before he was captured and brought to Russia.  After being brought to Russia he became the son, by adoption, of the Russian czar, Peter the Great. As an adult, he held positions such as, major-general, military engineer and governor of Reval, renamed Tallinn, a city in Estonia. His education was completed in Paris. He studied, art, science, and mathematics. He was the great-grandfather of Alexander Pushkin, a great Russian poet and the author of a novel, that he never finished,  titled, Peter the Great’s Negro.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

(1701-1773), Was a famous Muslim Atlantic slave. He was born in the town of Bondu, located and founded by his grandfather, in West Africa. He was born into a prominent Fulbe family, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fulbe, of religious leaders. He was captured at the Gambia River by a gang of Mandingoes, one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. He was delivered to Mr. Tolsey, a slave owner in Maryland. He  ran away and was recaptured and then sold to Thomas Bluett, a lawyer.  He traveled to England, with Bluett, and there he learned to speak English and socialized with royal families and prominent people.  He was also known as Job ben Solomon, whose memoirs were said to be the earliest slave narratives, ever published. Because of his escape from hardship he was eventually returned to his home land, Africa.

Booker T. Washington

(1856-1915), was born to Jane, a slave who worked as a cook, and an unknown white plantation owner. He was called, Booker Taliaferro until he was nine. and moved to Virginia with his family. Washington was the first name of his step-father, Washington Ferguson. Booker went to school and told the teacher that his name was Booker Washington. After learn all he could at the local school, at the age of sixteen, Booker enrolled in the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, in Hampton, Va. He Became an educator, head of Tuskegee Institute, an author of his autobiography, Up From Slavery, orator, and dominant leader in the African-American community. His “Atlanta Address of 1895″ entitled him the last honor. Washington was married three times, each wife was deceased before he remarried. He had three children, one from his first wife, two sons from the second wife, and none by the last wife. At the age of fifty nine, Booker T. Washington died. The cause of death is believed to have been because of exhaustion and possible, arteriosclerosis, or hardening of the arteries.