Ayuba Suleiman Diallo

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo was born around 1701 in Bundu, in present-day Senegal, into a prominent family of Fulbe Muslim clerics; his father was a respected imam, and Diallo himself became a hafiz, having memorised the entire Quran, while also working as a trader.

In 1730, while travelling to sell goods along the Gambia River, Diallo and his interpreter were captured by hostile raiders and sold into the transatlantic slave trade, transported to Annapolis, Maryland, where he was purchased by a tobacco planter.

Unaccustomed to plantation labour and mocked for practising his Islamic faith, Diallo escaped within a year, was recaptured and jailed, where his evident learning and piety came to the attention of local lawyer Thomas Bluett; a letter Diallo wrote intended for his father instead reached James Oglethorpe, director of the Royal African Company, who was moved to purchase his freedom.

Diallo travelled to England in 1733, where he was lionised by London society, presented at the royal court, and had his portrait painted by William Hoare; his story was compiled by Bluett and published in 1734 as one of the earliest slave narratives, distinct for depicting an educated Muslim nobleman rather than the stereotypes British readers expected.

In 1734 Diallo returned home to Bundu via the Gambia, one of a very small number of enslaved Africans of the era to survive the Middle Passage and successfully return to their homeland; his death was recorded in England as late as 1773, evidence that his story continued to be followed by his London acquaintances decades after his return.