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Dr. Artemus W. Gaye, a seventh generation descendant of Prince Ibrahima, is organizing a freedom celebration for Prince Ibrahima and Isabella on Saturday, May 10, at Historic Jefferson College.
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Portrait of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima by Henry Inman and engraved by Thomas Illman. Available through U.S. Library of Congress.
A special event celebrating the 197th Freedom Anniversary of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima and his wife, Isabella, will be held from 1 to 3 p.m. Saturday, May 10, at Historic Jefferson College at 16 Old North St. It is free to the public.
Titled, “Freedom: Retold,” the event aims to retell the story of Ibrahima using new scholarship, an exhibition, and tours that focus on the prince and Isabella and “their incredible narratives of love, liberty, and lasting legacies,” said Dr. Artemus W. Gaye, chief organizer of the event.
Ibrahima was a Muslim prince from Timbo, West Africa, who was captured in his homeland and sold to slave traders. He arrived in Natchez in 1788, where he was sold to Thomas Foster. Ibrahima spent 40 years enslaved on Foster’s plantation before he and Isabella gained their freedom in 1828. They sailed to Monrovia, Liberia in 1829, where he died of a disease. He was 67.
Gaye said the public will learn more about the prince during the celebration. He said the program will feature a panel discussion by Dr. Eric J. Hearst of the Center Church of Hartford, Connecticut, the home church of Thomas Gallaudet (1787-1851), who was a supporter of Ibrahima.
Other panelists will include Dr. Abu Bakarr Jalloh, author of “The Fulani & Liberia: An Inclusive Approach” (2025); David Dreyer, local historian and genealogist; and Judy Rose, author of “A Legacy of Heirs: The Final Truth” (Jefferson Chapel Family & Friends Foundation Inc., 2016).
The exhibition will include paintings from Africa and new portraits of the prince, Isabella, Simon, and the family migration to Liberia, Gaye said. Creative renderings of artists’ impressions of Liberia from the 1820s to the 1860s, as well as the repatriated Africans who lived there, will be part of the exhibition, he said.
The day’s events will include a tour of various sites related to Ibrahima’s history.
Gaye said the event is also an opportunity to reconnect with local Ibrahima descendants and others who interacted with the West African descendants in 2003. Gaye, who was born in Monrovia, Liberia – the place where Ibrahima died in July 1829 — is a seventh generation descendant of the prince.
Specifically, Gaye noted, he is a descendent of Simon Rahman, one of the sons of the prince and Isabella, who returned to Liberia with his children, wife, and his brother, Levi, in 1831 on the ship, The Carolinian, and settled in Monrovia and New Georgia, Liberia.
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Dr. Gaye's book Dr. Isabella Rahman and the African Prince of Fouta Djallon"
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Dr. Gaye's book "A Tossed American Pie: The Controversial Conception and Creation of Liberia by White Americans, Black Repatriates and Liberated Africans”"
Gaye is the author of “Dr. Isabella Rahman and the African Prince of Fouta Djallon” (Forte Publishing International, 2023) and “A Tossed American Pie: The Controversial Conception and Creation of Liberia by White Americans, Black Repatriates and Liberated Africans” (Forte Publishing International, 2023).
According to Gaye, the selection of Jefferson College as the site for the celebration is significant because of its connection to Ibrahima.
First, the land occupied by Jefferson College was donated by John Foster and James Foster, according to the National Register of Historic Places. Both men were brothers of Thomas Foster.
Second, it was in the area near the college that Ibrahima recognized Dr. John Coats Cox in 1807 at the market. Cox, an Irishman, had sailed to West Africa in 1781. After going ashore to hunt, he became lost and ill, but was rescued by the Fulani people and taken to Timbo, where Ibrahima’s father cared for him.
After their chance meeting in Mississippi, the doctor tried for many years to purchase Ibrahima’s freedom, but Thomas Foster refused to release him. Even so, Ibrahima’s fame spread because of his meeting with Cox, and it eventually led to his freedom.
Ibrahima’s story is told in Dr. Terry Alford’s book, “Prince Among Slaves: The True Story of an African Prince Sold into Slavery in the American South” (Oxford University Press, 1977).
The May 10 celebration is organized by the Prince Ibrahim Isabella Freedom Foundation and co-sponsored by the Friends of the Forks of the Roads Society Inc.
For more information, send email to liberiaaldc@gmail.com