Karen Chatman
I seem to have missed that the title of the article is not about the person who is notable, --and had an article already. My error. DGG ( talk ) 02:19, 12 November 2021 (UTC)
Princess Karen Chatman | |
|---|---|
 Her Royal Highness Princess Karen Chatman from the House of Sori. The Arabic inscription reads "His name is Abd al-Rahman". | |
| Princess | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Natchez |
| Spouse(s) | Duke Rayshon Chatman (Undated.) |
| Children | 3 |
Princess Karen Chatman Great-Great Granddaughter of Prince Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahima Sori (Arabic: عبد الرحمن ابن ابراهيم سوري) (1762–1829) who was a Fula prince and Amir (commander or governor) who was captured in the Fouta Jallon region of Guinea, West Africa and sold to slave traders and brought to the United States in 1788.[1] Upon discovering his noble lineage, his slave master Thomas Foster began referring to him as "Prince",[2] a title he kept until his final days. After spending 40 years in slavery, he was freed in 1828 by order of U.S. President John Quincy Adams and Secretary of State Henry Clay after the Sultan of Morocco demanded his release.[3]
Life
Princess Karen Chatman is a direct descendant of Abdul-Rahman ibn Ibrahima Sori of Torodbe Muslim ruler (Emir)[4] who was born in 1762 in the city of Timbo, now located in Guinea.[5] His father, Almami Ibrahim Sori, consolidated the Islamic confederation of Futa Jallon in 1776, with Timbo as its capital, where Abdul Rahman lived and studied. "He was learned in the Islamic sciences and could speak at least 4 different African languages, in addition to Arabic and English, and in 1781, after returning from study in the renowned city of learning-Timbuktu, Abd'r-Rahman joined the armies of his father."[4] At age 26, he was made an Emir of one of the regiments that conquered the lands of the Bambara and in 1788 his father "made him the head of a 2000 men army whose mission was to protect the coast and strengthen their economic interest in the region. It was during this military campaign that Abd'r-Rahman was captured and enslaved by other Africans.[4] He was sold to slave traders who brought him to Natchez, Mississippi where he labored on the cotton plantation of Thomas Foster for more than thirty-eight years before gaining his freedom.[6] In 1794 he married Isabella, another slave of Foster's, and eventually fathered a large family: five sons and four daughters.[7]
Princess Karen understanding the great responsibility to carry on her Great Great Grandfather’s legacy, speaks about the ordeal that Prince Sori underwent while he was enslaved in the Natchez speaking publicly of the struggle of Prince Sori from slave to freedom. Princess Karen having been born in the cotton rich State of Mississippi understands too well the challenges of being a Black American being born at the edge of the Civil Rights movement. Princess Karen tells the story of Prince Sori and how he shared knowledge of growing cotton in Futa Jallon with his slave-master Thomas Foster. In 1975, Princess Karen took on the role of carrying on Prince Sori's legacy with the assistance of the United States Government and the Kingdoms of Morocco and the North African States.
Legacy
Abdul-Rahman (Prince Sori), wrote two autobiographies. A drawing of him is displayed in the Library of Congress, a roadmap which one can say was left for his descendants such as Princess Karen Chatman to follow as they reconnect to the Royal lineages.
In 1968, James Register, who had been born in Natchez, wrote the first full account of Abdul-Rahman's life in his book Jallon: Arabic Prince of Old Natchez (1788 - 1828). In 1977, history professor Terry Alford further documented the life of Abdul-Rahman in his book Prince Among Slaves. In Prince Among Slaves, Alford writes:
Among Henry Clay's documents, for the year 1829 we find the January 1 entry, "Prince Ibrahima, an Islamic prince sold into slavery 15 years ago, and freed with the stipulation that he return (in this case the word "return" makes sense) to Africa, joined the black citizens of Philadelphia as an honored guest in their New Year's Day parade, up Lombard and Walnut, and down Chestnut and Spruce streets.
— Terry Alford, Prince Among Slaves
In 2007, Andrea Kalin directed Prince Among Slaves, a film portraying the life of Abdul-Rahman, narrated by Mos Def.
See also
- Emperor (movie)
- Prince Among Slaves
- Slavery in the United States
- Islam in the United States
- List of enslaved people
References
- ↑ Diouf 1998, p. 27–28.
- ↑ Austin 1997, p. 71.
- ↑ Diouf 1998, p. 137.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Shareef, Muhammad (2004). "The Lost and Found Children of Abraham in Africa and the American Diaspora" (PDF). siiasi.org. Sankore Institute of Islamic African Studies International (SIIASI). Retrieved 12 November 2016.
- ↑ Austin 1997, p. 69.
- ↑ Austin 1997, p. 65.
- ↑ "Prince Among Slaves". PBS. Archived from the original on February 14, 2008.
Bibliography
- Austin, Allan (1997). African Muslims in Antebellum America (5th ed.). New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-91269-5. Search this book on
- Diouf, Sylviane (1998). Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas. New York and London: New York University Press. ISBN 0-8147-1905-8. Search this book on
External links
- Prince Among Slaves Official Movie Site
- MuslimWiki Ibrahim Abd ar-Rahman
- IMDb Prince Among Slaves (2006)
- Prince Among Slaves | PBS
- Film Challenges Convention on Muslims, Africans, Slave-Era America
- Princess Karen Foundation
- Think Pink for a Cure Foundation
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