Black History Hidden Gems: Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima

Today, we launch BOSSIP's Black History Hidden GemsOur weekly Black History Month series dedicated to uncovering neglected black figures, moments and milestones. This series spotlights stories that were almost erased, but that legacy refused to be forgotten.

Recognizing black achievements during Black History Month is not just about honoring triumph, but about reclaiming narratives of resilience, intellect and humanity that, in some cases, have been deliberately buried. Few stories embody that mission more powerfully than the life of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima.

Prince Ibrahima arrived at a river in Natchez, Mississippi, landing in chains, a stark contrast to the life he lived before. Once a Muslim prince and colonel in his father's army in West Africa, who lived lavishly, he would spend the next 40 years doing soul-crushing work while enslaved on a plantation.

Born in 1762 and raised in Timbo in present-day Guinea, he was the son of King Sori, a powerful political and religious leader of the Futa Jallon highlands. His early life focused on education, faith and discipline, and as a teenager he traveled to study in the Islamic centers of Timbuktu and Djenné, where he learned Arabic and several African languages. By his mid-20s, he had risen through the ranks of the military, earning the honor and respect of the men he led, but violence abruptly disrupted that life.

In January 1788, rival forces ambushed Ibrahima and his soldiers as they returned from a military victory. Captors sold him into the transatlantic slave trade, where he passed through the Caribbean and New Orleans before traders sent him up the Mississippi River to Natchez, where plantation owner Thomas Foster bought him.

History.com notes that Ibrahima remained forty and refused to be hidden, telling Foster that he was a prince whose family would pay for his return home. Not so shockingly, the master ignored him and instead reduced his identity to a nickname, mockingly calling him “Prince” while denying the truth.

For years, survival replaced sovereignty for the royal, that is, until he experienced a life-changing reunion. History.com reports that while selling produce at a market near Natchez, he encountered Dr. John Coates Cox, an Irish doctor he had known as a child in West Africa. He was an ally of the prince, as the doctor had fallen ill years before and was stranded in Futa Jallon, where Ibrahima's family cared for him. Grateful for his life and hurt at seeing the prince in slavery, Cox spent nearly 20 years trying to buy Ibrahima's freedom. After his death, his son continued the effort, and while no one succeeded, someone else did.

Years later, newspaper publisher Andrew Marschalk noticed that Ibrahima was reading Arabic fluently in his Natchez printing office and recognizing his intellect, Marschalk agreed to help him write a letter meant for his homeland. In 1826, Ibrahima wrote the letter, which Marschalk forwarded to the American senator Thomas Buck Reed. Reed sent it to Washington, DC

According to History.com, the correspondence reached international officials, including the sultan of Morocco, who offered to pay for Ibrahima's freedom. His Arabic handwriting led the Sultan to believe that Ibrahima was a North African Moor, and Ibrahima was wise not to correct him. The Sultan of Morocco requested that President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay arrange for Ibrahima's release in 1829. Slavemaster Foster agreed to let Ibrahima go on the condition that he leave the United States immediately. Before he left, however, Ibrahima and his wife, Isabella, traveled to Washington, where he worked with government officials and the American Colonization Society to raise money to free his nine children. In 1829, Ibrahima and his wife sailed to Liberia under the sponsorship of the society, but shortly after arriving, Ibrahima fell ill and died.

And while he never returned to his homeland, his legacy lives on. Almost two and a half centuries after his death, the city of Natchez, Mississippi, formally honored him with a historical marker placed near the place where his journey to freedom began.

Mississippi today reports that the marker was unveiled on October 24 at the corner of US 61 North and Jefferson College Street near Historic Jefferson College. At the Natchez ceremony honoring his life, Roscoe Barnes III, president of the Mississippi Historical Society and manager of cultural heritage and tourism at Visit Natchez, told the outlet the recognition was long overdue.

“We believed it was time to honor his life and his legacy,” Barnes said, describing Ibrahima's journey as one of the most remarkable stories to come out of the region.

“It's a story about darkness, a story about pain, suffering, slavery, but that's not all. It's a story about hope.”

Ultimately, the story of Prince Abdul Rahman Ibrahima centers on his unbroken sense of self that survived against the odds. Addiction denied his freedom, but it never diminished his identity, intellect, or belief in his own worth. Even after decades in slavery, he carried his history with him, proving that sovereignty of the spirit can endure even when the body is bound.

By revisiting lives like his with BOSSIP's Black History Hidden Gems, we do more than remember the past. We are restoring visibility and honoring Black excellence that spans generations while ensuring that these hidden gems finally receive the recognition they deserve.