A Prince Among Slaves

We have come to the edge of the Mississippi, to the town of Natchez. We are lured here by a story that is simply too good to ignore.

It tells of Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahim Sori was a Fulani Muslim ruler (Emir) born in 1762 in the city of Timbo, now located in Guinea. His father, Almami Ibrahim Sori consolidated the Islamic confederation of Futa Jallon in 1776, with Timbo as its capital, where Abdul Rahman lived and studied. 

"He was learned in the Islamic sciences and could speak at least 4 different African languages, in addition to Arabic and English, and in 1781, after returning from study in the renowned city of learning-Timbuktu, Abd'r-Rahman joined the armies of his father. 

At age 26, he was made an Emir of one of the regiments that conquered the lands of the Bambara and in 1788 his father "made him the head of a 2000 men army whose mission was to protect the coast and strengthen their economic interest in the region. It was during this military campaign that Abd'r-Rahman was captured and enslaved.”  

He was sold to the British who brought him to Natchez, Mississippi where he labored on the cotton plantation of Thomas Foster for more than thirty-eight years before gaining his freedom. In 1794 he married Isabella, another slave of Foster's, and eventually fathered a large family: five sons and four daughters.

By using his knowledge of growing cotton in Futa Jallon, Abdul-Rahman rose to a position of authority on the plantation and became the de facto foreman. This granted him the opportunity to grow his own vegetable garden and sell at the local market. During this time, he met an old acquaintance, Dr. John Cox, an Irish surgeon who had served on an English ship, and had become the first white man to reach Timbo after being abandoned by his ship and then falling ill. 

Cox stayed ashore for six months and was taken in by Abdul-Rahman's family, where he was tasked to teach Abdul-Rahman English. Cox appealed to Foster to sell his "Prince" so he could return to Africa. However, Foster would not budge, since he viewed Abdul-Rahman as indispensable to the Foster farm. Dr. Cox continued, until his death in 1829, to seek Ibrahim's freedom, to no avail. After Cox died, his son continued the cause to free Abdul-Rahman.

In 1826, Abdul-Rahman wrote a letter to his relatives in Africa. A local newspaperman, Andrew Marschalk, who was Dutch, sent the letter to United States Senator Thomas Reed from Mississippi, who was in town at the time, and Reed forwarded it to the U.S. Consulate in Morocco. Since Abdul-Rahman wrote in Arabic, Marschalk and the U.S. government assumed that he was a Moor. After the Sultan of Morocco Abderrahmane read the letter, he asked President Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay to release Abdul-Rahman. In 1829, Thomas Foster agreed to the release of Abdul-Rahman, without payment, with the stipulation that he return to Africa and not live as a free man in America.

Before leaving the US, Abdul-Rahman and his wife went to various states and Washington, D.C. where he met with President Adams in person. He solicited donations, through the press, personal appearances, the American Colonization Society and politicians, to free his family back in Mississippi. Word got back to Foster, who considered this a breach of the agreement. Abdul-Rahman's actions and freedom were also used against President John Quincy Adams by future president Andrew Jackson during the presidential election.

After ten months, Abdul-Rahman and Isabella had raised only half the funds to free their children, and instead left for Monrovia, Liberia, without their children. He lived for four months before contracting a fever and died at the age of 67. He never saw Fouta Djallon or his children again.

The funds that Abdul-Rahman and Isabella raised only bought the freedom of two sons and their families. They were reunited with Isabella in Monrovia. Thomas Foster died the same year as Abdul-Rahman. Foster's estate, including Abdul-Rahman's other children and grandchildren, was divided among Foster's heirs and scattered across Mississippi and the South. Abdul-Rahman's descendants still reside in Monrovia and in Natchez Mississippi United States. In 2006, Abdul-Rahman's descendants gathered for a family reunion at Foster's Field.

In the boondocks...and loving it

Peace and calm is everywhere in the Homochitto National Forest.

We’re in the boondocks of Mississippi and loving it. Homochitto National Forest is an old-growth forest, with pine trees stretching 140 feet into the sky, magnolias and oaks and a campground that’s a little piece of heaven. There are three other campers in our section of the forest. We have 50-amp electric and water on a flat piece of land. And we pay $13 a n­­­­­­­­ight. No one needs more than this!

We’re about forty miles east of Natchez on the Mississippi River and we’re pretty isolated – no internet, very marginal telephone service and a little lady who met us at the end of a four-mile road into the forest. She’s a volunteer who has been here all winter in her splendid isolation. She told us the best places to

park for a couple of nights.

We wandered down to the edge of Clear Springs on our first evening, sitting in the golden light of a setting sun. A pair of locals were fishing for brim, with a fallen branch in the spring that carried about 30 turtles. Sun glittered off the water and through the bullrushes, with spring busting out all around us. Blossoming trees – dogwoods, azaleas - and fragile little white violets and bluets glowed in the final hour of sunlight. We’re in heaven.

We can pick up NPR radio for Mississippi but not much else. And that’s just fine.

We’d driven a long day from Alabama where we stayed a couple of nights in Escapees Summerdale Plantation  Park. This is a huge development with a massive community hall where we joined the other residents for a chili and chicken dinner. All services are available there – with the exception of the swimming pool. This huge pool has been closed for the winter because the solar-powered heating system i­s broken, resulting in water that was too chilly for the old geezers.

On our way to Summerdale, we found our Honda Fit, which we tow behind the motorhome, refused to start when we pulled into a rest area. We got a lithium-ion jumpstart from a fellow traveler out of Montreal. An hour later, when we pulled off the interstate at a Walmart so we could purchase our own battery jumper, we park alongside the same Canadian couple. He asked if we wanted another jump!

We purchased our new lithium ion jumper and, when we returned to the rig, we opened the box. Oh-oh. The box was empty. We returned to the store to complain that we’d just spent $74 for an empty box. The manager was suspicious but issued us a credit and we found a box with the proper battery inside it. We were thankful that we hadn’t driven off down the road with our empty box.

Facing the Unknown

Our 40-foot motorhome awaits its first launch in 15 months.

It has been 15 months since I came face to face with my first days of battle against the cancer that appeared in my body without any real warning. Oh, I had aches and pains when we volunteered at the National Wildlife Preserves in Long Island two years ago. But I thought, at the time, that I was just beginning to feel my age.

But now we are ready to re-launch our wandering after my bemused oncologist, Manjesh Lingamurthy, gave us the go-ahead to put our motorhome in gear and wander.

We begin this Saturday by taking our first baby step. We’ll leave our home base in Wauchula, Florida, and drive the motorhome over the Tampa Bay Bridge. It’s only a journey of about 2.5 hours. But it follows the pattern we have followed all our lives, even when we lived aboard our many sailboats.

We have always liked the practice of cutting our umbilical cord and setting out ... but not going too far. We used to leave on our boat, clear the marina, head downstream and then drop our anchor after two hours. That allowed us the act of separation. It also permitted us to get over the jitters of leaving the land, relaxing for the night and then striking out for a more distant shore.

Aboard the motorhome, it’s no different. We’ll drive to Seminole, Florida, and park on a quiet street. We’ll visit with two dear friends for the night. And then, on Sunday morning, we’ll launch our rig, car attached at the back, and head north toward Tallahassee, in Florida’s panhandle.

Our plans are to head on to Louisiana where we plan to have some work done on the rig by a superb   motorhome mechanic that we have used in the past. Then we wander south into Texas where we plan to meet up with our oldest granddaughter, Cassandra. She has asked for Jo’s help in adjusting her mother’s wedding dress so she can wear it at her own wedding in August.

Westward-ho to Fredericksburg, TX, where we plan to spend 10 days at a gathering of Alfa Motorhome owners. I liken it to salmon coming all the way upriver to meet their own kind...but we won’t be spawning, of course.

This will be where we check on my blood so my oncologist can keep connected with me by analyzing all the platelet counts. We’ll be using Quest Diagnostics as we wander America. We plan to stop for testing each month. In addition, we have to plan our itinerary so we can arrange to have my Revlimid anti-cancer drug delivered by Fedex along the route . This is a really nasty drug, that I’m required to take every other day to keep my multiple myeloma at bay. Even though my doc says I’m in remission, I have to take the drug for the rest of my life. It certainly beats the alternative!

Revlimid, you might be interested in knowing, formerly was called Thalidomide. If you’re old enough, you might remember, in the 1960s, this was given to pregnant women who were having difficulties with viability of the fetus. Its downside: babies were born with flippers instead of arms, among other horror stories.

When I get my Revlimid supply each month, I have to listen to a nurse who tells me I MUST NOT  allow a pregnant woman to come in contact with the drug. I also am warned that I need a full-body condom to have sexual relations with a woman of child-bearing age! That’s only a slight exaggeration !

All these check-ins add complications to our journey. But it surely beats the alternative!

We invite you to join our journey as we continue on our endless journey of discovery.