The book The Prince Among Slaves by Terry Alford revolves around the live of an African Muslim, Abd al Rahman Ibrahima, slave who was captured and sold in America as a slave. Before being captured, he was a prince, and was educated and upon being sold to slave owners in Mississippi, he was given command over slaves working in tobacco and cotton plantation. While in Africa, he had saved an Irish surgeon who petitioned for his freedom in America resulting to his release in 1828 when he was aged 60 years. He then navigated back to Africa where he died of Fever five months later. Among the greatest attributes of the book revolves around Ibrahima being able to maintain his faith and cultural background irrespective of the differences between the American culture and his African cultural and Muslim religious background. the book is able disclose how he survives as a slave, and thus securing freedom is closely linked to Eric Foner’s in the book, Give me Freedom, experience as on how the slaves survived in America and their fights towards freedom.
A close link between the two books revolves the manner in which the slaves were liberated. In Alford’s book, Ibrahima secures freedom through use of his maintaining his dignity based on his religious teaching and his cultural heritage as revealed in “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (Alford 175). That reveals the way in which Ibrahima maintained his religious faith and even though he know his need for freedom. However, Foner’s book reveals how slaves were liberated during the reconstruction era through various methods during the civil movements. In both book, there government intervention is evident in efforts towards liberating the slaves. More so, the government played a key role in the governance of slaves. Both books plat a key role in showing the way the claves were managed by the slave owners and what freedom meant to the slaves.
Ibrahima ability to maintain his dignity plays a key role in liberating himself to freedom, even though his background differed from that of the American’s lifestyle in a big war. Foner displays how the slaves sought freedom using different criteria from that revealed by Alford. Nonetheless, both books display the manner in which slaves were treated and what freedom meant.
Works Cited
Alford, Terry. Prince Among Slaves. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986. Print.
