Ottobah Cugoano
vers 1757-après 1791 18th century
Speech given back to those from whom it was taken, and God held as the father of all without exception.
Who was Ottobah Cugoano?
Born among the Fante on the coast of present-day Ghana, kidnapped at about thirteen while playing with other children, he was shipped to Grenada and knew the plantations before being taken to England. Freed and baptised in London in 1773, he learned to read and write. In 1787 he published the first indictment of slavery written and signed by an African in Britain.
In their own words
I was early snatched away from my native country, with about eighteen or twenty more boys and girls, as we were playing in a field.
This Lord of Hosts, in his great Providence, and in great mercy to me, made a way for my deliverance from Grenada.
He who placed them in their various situations, hath extended equally his care and protection to all.
All mankind did spring from one original, and there are no different species among men.