Music:
Film Overview
1788. The slave ship Africa set sail from the Gambia River, its hold laden with a profitable but highly perishable cargo-- hundreds of men, women and children bound in chains—headed to American shores. Six months later, a handful of survivors found themselves for sale in Natchez, Mississippi. On the slave auction block, one of them, a 26-years-old male named Abdul Rahman Ibrahima is an African Prince.
PRINCE AMONG SLAVES is the true story of Abdul Rahman Ibrahima, brought to life in rich, dramatic detail on film, including:* his life as the son of one of the most revered and fierce kings on the African continent and the tribal battle that stripped him of his rightful heritage;* his journey from Africa to a Natchez, Mississippi, plantation where he successfully escaped—only to return in order to survive;* his role as a man whose education surpassed that of his white superiors and how he used his knowledge to sustain himself and create his master’s wealth;* his accidental reunion 25 years later with John Coates Cox, an Irish immigrant earlier rescued from certain death by Ibrahima’s father in Africa; and Cox’s negotiations to secure his friend’s freedom;* the impact of slavery on Thomas Foster's family as his adult children were saddled with drunkenness, insanity, abandonment and murder;* the colorful characters and important historical figures who peopled Ibrahima’s life, including Mississippi journalist Andrew Marschalk who popularized his story to secure his freedom, only to later turn on him with racially charged editorials;* his release from slavery and the work he would do to launch his celebrity, sparking racial tension throughout the ante-bellum South;* his return to Africa and his death there just days from his former home; and the emancipation of his children and their reunion with their mother in Monrovia.
History
As if written in the stars themselves...As if written in the stars themselves, Abdul Rahman's path crossed that of numerous luminaries of 19th Century America, as the Prince and former slave sought the aid of these leaders of the young country which held, but had not yet fulfilled, the promise of freedom for all.Forty years of enslavement and hard labor from sun-up to sundown on a steamy Mississippi plantation could not dim the noble spirit of African Prince Abdul Rahman, who never wavered in his belief that freedom, not bondage, was his rightful destiny. In 1828, with the help of friends in Natchez and the intervention of the U.S. Government, plantation owner Thomas Foster was persuaded to release the Prince from slavery, and Abdul Rahman finally got his freedom.It was not an unconditional release: Foster's one requirement—that the Prince return immediately to his African home—was one condition Abdul Rahman could not keep. Bravely defying the dictate of his former owner, the Prince instead embarked on a tour of the northern states, telling his story before huge audiences and seeking support. In his heart he carried the image of his children, still bound in bitter slavery in Natchez; in his pocket, he carried his subscription book, soliciting money to buy their freedom.Abdul Rahman’s tour of the North made him the most famous African in America, and a flashpoint of controversy in the increasingly ugly 1828 presidential campaign. Throughout the tour, Abdul Rahman encountered millionaires, governors, congressmen, ministers, abolitionists, even a President—the leading men of the day. In all these meetings, Abdul Rahman treated the men as peers and equals, acting always with the dignity of a Prince. In turn, his own nobility of spirit was recognized by many of those he met.