BLACKOGRAPHY - Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua

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Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua’s biography is the only known biography 
of a former slave from Brazil. Baquaqua was born around 1824 near 
Djougou in modern day Benin to a Muslim merchant family.  Baquaqua was 
captured from Djougou in 1845 while acting as a messenger for a local 
king; he was taken to the coast and shipped to Recife, Brazil.  
Originally he was sold to a local baker and soon after was sold to a 
ship’s captain based in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.  After living in bondage
 for two years Baquaqua’s owner took him on a voyage to New York City, 
New York where local abolitionists helped Baquaqua secure his freedom in
 1847.  
Baquaqua spent the next two years in Port-au-Prince, Haiti with the 
Baptist Free Mission Society.  In 1848 Baquaqua, previously Muslim 
converted to Christianity and the Baptist missionaries continued to hope
 he would return to Africa to become a Christian missionary.  In 1849 
Baquaqua returned to New York State where he enrolled in New York 
Central College in McGrawville, New York, remaining there until 1853. It
 is not known if he received a degree.  
New York Central College was established by the American Baptist Free
 Mission Society to educate  white students and former slaves.  As such 
it was one of a handful of racially integrated colleges in the United 
States.  It was also the first college to hire African American faculty.
Baquaqua moved to Chatham, Canada West in modern day Ontario in 
1853.  In 1854 Baquaqua’a biography was taken as an oral narrative while
 he spoke mostly in Portuguese, as he knew little English and no 
French.  He spoke fluent Dendi and Arabic which had been his native 
languages in Africa.  Although Baquaqua’s oral narrative was recorded in
 Portuguese while he resided in Canada, its target audience was the 
anti-slavery population of the United States.    
In 1855 Baquaqua travelled to Great Britain, still intending to 
return to Africa one day as a missionary.  However, in 1857 all records 
of Baquaqua ceased and it is not known where or how he lived out his 
last days.