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 for American shores. Eight months later, a handful of survivors found themselves for sale in Natchez, Mississippi. On the slave auction block, one of them, a 26-year-old male named Abdul Rahman Ibrahima made an astonishing claim to Thomas Foster, the plantation owner who purchased him at auction: As an African prince, highly educated and heir to a kingdom, this bedraggled African�s father would gladly pay gold for his return. Foster dismissed the claim as a tissue of lies.
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.
|
Synopsis
Character List
