James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw

(c. 1705 - 1775)

Born around 1710 in modern-day Nigeria, Gronniosaw was brought as a slave from Africa to Barbados to New York City, where he was bought by a minister who taught him Christianity and how to read Dutch. After being freed upon his master’s death around 1747, immigrating to England in 1762, and marrying a widowed weaver, he dictated his life’s story to “a young lady.” It was printed in 1772 as A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, as Related by Himself, the first slave narrative published in English.