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Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua: A Native of Zoogoo, In the Interior of Africa
Biography of Mahommah G. Baquaqua, a Native of Zoogoo, in the Interior of Africa.(A Convert to Christianity, ) With a Description of That Part of the World; Including the Manners and Customs of the Inhabitants, Their Religious Notions, Form of Government, Laws, Appearance of the Country, Buildings, Agriculture, Manufactures, Shepherds and Herdsmen, Domestic Animals, Marriage Ceremonials, Funeral Services, Styles of Dress, Trade and Commerce, Modes of Warfare, System of Slavery, &c., &c. Mahommah's Early Life, His Education, His Capture and Slavery in Western Africa and Brazil, His Escape to the United States, from Thence to Hayti, (the City of Port Au Prince, ) His Reception by the Baptist Missionary There, The Rev. W. L. Judd; His Conversion to Christianity, Baptism, and Return to This Country, His Views, Objects and Aim. Written and Revised from His Own Words, by Samuel Moore, Esq., Late Publisher of the "North of England Shipping Gazette," Author of Several Popular Works, and Editor of Sundry Reform Papers
102 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 2001
About the author
Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua
3 books1 followerBaquaqua was born in Djougou (currently in Benin) between 1820 and 1830 in a prominent Muslim trader family. He learned the Quran, literature and mathematics in an Islamic school. Still as an adolescent, he and his brother took part in the succession wars in Daboya, where he was captured and then rescued.
Returning to Djougou, he became the servant of a local dignitary, perhaps the chief of Soubroukou, whom he called 'king'. The abuses he committed in that period made him target of an ambush in which he was imprisoned and transported to Dahomey; he was embarked into a slave ship in 1845 and taken to Pernambuco in Brazil.
Baquaqua was a slave in Olinda, Pernambuco for around two years. His master was a baker. He worked in the construction of houses, carrying stones, learned Portuguese, and performed as an "escravo de tabuleiro" (peddling slave). The cruelty of his Brazilian masters made him resort to alcoholism and attempt suicide.
Taken to Rio de Janeiro, Baquaqua was incorporated with the crew of the trade ship Lembrança ("A Memory"), transporting goods to the southern provinces of Brazil. In 1847, a coffee shipment to the United States was his passport to freedom. The ship arrived in New York harbor in June, where it was approached by local abolitionists, who encouraged him to escape from the ship. After the escape, however, he was imprisoned in the local jail, and only the help of the abolitionists (who facilitated his escape from prison) prevented his return to the ship. He was then sent to Haiti, where he lived with the Reverend W. L. Judd, a Baptist missionary.
Converted to Christianity and baptized in 1848, Baquaqua returned to the US due to the political instability in Haiti. He studied at the New York Central College in upstate New York for almost three years. In 1854, he moved to Canada; his autobiography was published the same year in Detroit by Samuel Downing Moore.
It is not known what happened to Baquaqua after 1857. He was then in England and had turned to the American Baptist Free Mission Society to be sent as a missionary to Africa.
Returning to Djougou, he became the servant of a local dignitary, perhaps the chief of Soubroukou, whom he called 'king'. The abuses he committed in that period made him target of an ambush in which he was imprisoned and transported to Dahomey; he was embarked into a slave ship in 1845 and taken to Pernambuco in Brazil.
Baquaqua was a slave in Olinda, Pernambuco for around two years. His master was a baker. He worked in the construction of houses, carrying stones, learned Portuguese, and performed as an "escravo de tabuleiro" (peddling slave). The cruelty of his Brazilian masters made him resort to alcoholism and attempt suicide.
Taken to Rio de Janeiro, Baquaqua was incorporated with the crew of the trade ship Lembrança ("A Memory"), transporting goods to the southern provinces of Brazil. In 1847, a coffee shipment to the United States was his passport to freedom. The ship arrived in New York harbor in June, where it was approached by local abolitionists, who encouraged him to escape from the ship. After the escape, however, he was imprisoned in the local jail, and only the help of the abolitionists (who facilitated his escape from prison) prevented his return to the ship. He was then sent to Haiti, where he lived with the Reverend W. L. Judd, a Baptist missionary.
Converted to Christianity and baptized in 1848, Baquaqua returned to the US due to the political instability in Haiti. He studied at the New York Central College in upstate New York for almost three years. In 1854, he moved to Canada; his autobiography was published the same year in Detroit by Samuel Downing Moore.
It is not known what happened to Baquaqua after 1857. He was then in England and had turned to the American Baptist Free Mission Society to be sent as a missionary to Africa.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
June 17, 2017
História fundamental, contada da perspectiva de alguém que, convertido em mercadoria pelo sistema escravagista, sofreu suas piores violências. Fundamental para brasileiros, sobretudo, pelo confronto entre as formas de tratamento e opções de vida para os africanos escravizados após a proibição do tráfico pela Inglaterra e antes da Lei Euzébio de Queirós (1850).
É bom salientar que, na narrativa, é perceptível, a todo o momento, a mão do editor Samuel Moore. Apesar de ser o autor, Baquaqua não é o único narrador destas memórias.
Para quem procura por uma edição crítica, porém, esta edição não é uma boa opção. Além de apresentar alguns trechos com sintaxe truncada, há ilustrações pixalizadas e mapas de autoria e confiabilidade incertas. Para esses leitores, que pretendam estudar a obra em português, talvez seja recomendável aguardar a edição, anunciada há mais de um ano, de Bruno Véras e Nielson Bezerra, do Projeto Baquaqua . Do contrário, há as edições em inglês mesmo.
É bom salientar que, na narrativa, é perceptível, a todo o momento, a mão do editor Samuel Moore. Apesar de ser o autor, Baquaqua não é o único narrador destas memórias.
Para quem procura por uma edição crítica, porém, esta edição não é uma boa opção. Além de apresentar alguns trechos com sintaxe truncada, há ilustrações pixalizadas e mapas de autoria e confiabilidade incertas. Para esses leitores, que pretendam estudar a obra em português, talvez seja recomendável aguardar a edição, anunciada há mais de um ano, de Bruno Véras e Nielson Bezerra, do Projeto Baquaqua . Do contrário, há as edições em inglês mesmo.
November 30, 2025
It was really cool to read from a pov that isn’t often represented in media and slavery books.
May 12, 2020
Coming across this book was a very happy accident. It is unbelievable that never once in school I was told about the existence of it. Having a first-person perspective of the horrors of Brazilian slavery is an unmatchable experience, one that definitely my fellow countrymen would benefit of.
August 7, 2023
This is one of the very few extant first-hand experiences we have of someone who was living free in Africa, was captured and enslaved (this time by jealous neighbors), was sold to a variety of African slaveholders and slave traders (growing farther and farther from home each time), and then was sold across the Atlantic (this time to Brazil), and ultimately, escaped to freedom (in New York after serving on a ship voyage there).
African slavery is such a large stone in the foundations of the ancestry of every nation in the Americas, both those on the continents and those on the islands. And yet we have almost no first-hand experiences of what it was like to go from freedom, to enslavement, to the First Passage (through Africa), to the Middle Passage (across the Atlantic), to the Final Passage (through the Americas to a final destination, assuming there was a single, final destination), to settling into a new daily normal of enslaved life in the Americas.
The only accounts I have found so far are those of Kossula (interviewed and written by Zora Neale Hurston in “Barracoon”), Olaudah Equiano (written by himself), and now this account of Mahommah G. Banquaqua (written by himself and Samuel Moore). Three. That’s a minuscule number. I hope to find more, but I doubt it will be many more.
Every one of these books should be taught in its entirety in the schools — there are so few of them, and they are so short, that every word written or spoken by someone who went through the experience should be covered. It’s hard to understand our present if we don’t understand our past. And no one can really understand the past unless they listen to the voices of people who went through it.
I listened to the audiobook version of this, recorded by Hal Saunders. It was a great way to get acquainted with the material as I went about my day.
I’m giving it five stars because the information is so precious and so rare. And this is such a short little book! Please give it and the other two a read. Let the few voices we have be heard!
African slavery is such a large stone in the foundations of the ancestry of every nation in the Americas, both those on the continents and those on the islands. And yet we have almost no first-hand experiences of what it was like to go from freedom, to enslavement, to the First Passage (through Africa), to the Middle Passage (across the Atlantic), to the Final Passage (through the Americas to a final destination, assuming there was a single, final destination), to settling into a new daily normal of enslaved life in the Americas.
The only accounts I have found so far are those of Kossula (interviewed and written by Zora Neale Hurston in “Barracoon”), Olaudah Equiano (written by himself), and now this account of Mahommah G. Banquaqua (written by himself and Samuel Moore). Three. That’s a minuscule number. I hope to find more, but I doubt it will be many more.
Every one of these books should be taught in its entirety in the schools — there are so few of them, and they are so short, that every word written or spoken by someone who went through the experience should be covered. It’s hard to understand our present if we don’t understand our past. And no one can really understand the past unless they listen to the voices of people who went through it.
I listened to the audiobook version of this, recorded by Hal Saunders. It was a great way to get acquainted with the material as I went about my day.
I’m giving it five stars because the information is so precious and so rare. And this is such a short little book! Please give it and the other two a read. Let the few voices we have be heard!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews