Encyclopedia of African American History

Cugoano, Quobna Ottobah  33

Fante city-state named Agimaque (or Ajumako) near Assini,

Cugoano’s very name denotes his Gold Coast, Akan-

speaking heritage. Quobna, an Akan-day name for a male

born on a Tuesday, was a name he probably received seven

days aft er his birth. His father was a companion of the king

of Agimaque (or Agimaquehene) and Cugoano was a fre-

quent visitor in the Agimaquehene’s court, even befriend-

ing a number of his children. While staying with an uncle,

Cugoano was kidnapped by slave raiders at age 13 with

about 20 other children and transported to a coastal trade

factory. Aft er a three-day stay, he was transported by ship

to the infamous Cape Coast Castle. Once the ship had re-

ceived a full cargo of enslaved Africans, it disembarked to

Grenada and Cugoano later refl ected on the human misery

he witnessed on this slaver—including the frequent rape of

African women and an attempted revolt that was discov-

ered and brutally crushed by the ship’s crew.

Aft er about 10 months of working on a sugar planta-

tion in Grenada and another year living in various locales

throughout the Caribbean, Cugoano was purchased by Al-

exander Campbell and arrived in England just months aft er

the Mansfi eld decision in the Somerset case of June 22, 1722,

which ended slavery in England. Aft er his arrival, Cugo-

ano was baptized as “John Stuart” at St. James’s Church in

1773 and, by 1784, he was employed by Richard and Maria

Cosway—two artists who eventually connected Cugo-

ano to prominent fi gures like William Blake. On July 28,

1786, Cugoano enlisted the aid of Granville Sharpe to help

save Harry Demane—an enslaved man who was literally

tied to the mast of a ship headed to the British Caribbean.

Aft er this successful intervention, Cugoano would write a

letter to the Prince of Wales in order to encourage his sup-

port in abolishing the slave trade and slavery.

Cugoano, along with Olaudah Equiano and 24 other

black men, became actively involved in the Sons of Af-

rica—a group that sought rights for the black community in

England and the abolition of slavery. Th is was the context in

which he wrote a 1787 treatise entitled Th oughts and Sen-

timents on the Evil and Wicked Traffi cof the Slavery and

Commerce of the Human Species. Th is work was a sustained

diatribe against the slave trade and slavery and was the fi rst

of its kind published by a former enslaved African in the

Anglophone world—preceding Equiano’s narrative by two

years. According to Vincent Carretta, Cugoano’s Th ought

and Sentiments is also the fi rst historical work on slavery

and the slave trade written by an Anglophone African, and

the majority of the population, and nonslaveholders out-
numbered slaveholders. In the Chesapeake colonies, unlike
in the Caribbean, the birth rate of slaves exceeded the death
rate, which led to an ever-growing Creole (American-born)
population of slaves. Th e Creole slaves developed slave
communities in the Chesapeake colonies that mixed traits
of their African heritage such as burial rites, music, and
dance with traits of American colonists such as religion,
clothing, and names. Slaves constantly forced their own-
ers to rethink the master-slave relationship, oft en in favor
of the slaves. Th is mixture formed a unique kind of slavery
that was challenged, but not overthrown, by the American
Revolution and developed continuously through negotia-
tions between master and slave.
Th e British tried to incite slave fl ight during the Revo-
lution and Lord Dunmore’s Proclamation in 1775 to slaves
to fi ght for the British incited widespread panic among
white planters. During the Southern Campaign of the Brit-
ish Army, slaves fl ed plantations in large numbers. Th e Brit-
ish settled a small number of these slaves in Nova Scotia,
but many slaves either died of diseases in military camps,
were given to British offi cers as slaves, or were left behind to
be recaptured by their former masters. Th e American Revo-
lution changed the life of slaves just as much as the life of
all Americans.
See also: Atlantic Slave Trade; Bacon’s Rebellion; Freedom
Dues; Headright System; Indentured Servitude; Jamestown,
Virginia; Jeff erson, Th omas; Lord Dunmore; Rolfe, John;
Tobacco

Christian Pinnen

Bibliography
Berlin, Ira. Generation of Captivity: A History of African-American
Slaves. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2003.
Breen, T. H., and Stephen Innes. “Myne Owne Ground”: Race and
Freedom on Virginia’s Eastern Shore, 1 640– 1 676. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1980.
Kolchin, Peter. American Slavery: 1619 – 1 877. New York: Hill and
Wang, 1993.

Cugoano, Quobna Ottobah

Quobna Ottobah Cugoano (1757–?) was an abolitionist
and writer who advocated for the repatriation of former
enslaved Africans in Sierra Leone. Born in a Gold Coast