Black History Month - Ottobah Cugoano

Black History Month: 28 October 2020

 

Ottobah Cugoano was an African abolitionist who was active in England in the latter half of the eighteenth century. Captured and sold into slavery at the age of 13 in present-day Ghana, he was shipped to Grenada. In 1772 he was purchased by an English merchant who took him to England, where he was freed. Later working for the Cosways, he became acquainted with British political and cultural figures, and joined the Sons of Africa, abolitionists who were Africans.

 

In England, Cugoano became very prominent in the abolitionist movement. In 1786, he joined the African-British William Green in successfully appealing to Granville Sharp to save Harry Demane from being forced into slavery. With Olaudah Equiano and other "Sons of Africa" he continued to write against slavery, contributing public letters to London newspapers. His most important published text was "Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil and Wicked Traffic of the Slavery and Commerce of the Human Species" (1787), later published in a shorter version, "Thoughts and Sentiments on the Evil of Slavery" (1791). The book excoriated slavery, calling for immediate abolition of the trade and emancipation of the enslaved. It was the most radical abolitionist text of its time.

 

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