6 African royals who were captured and sold into slavery

Prince William Ansah Sessarakoo – Ghana

Sessarakoo was born in 1736 in Annamaboe, Gold Coast, modern day Ghana in West Africa. He was a born a royal prince and heir to the throne of Annamaboe in the central region of Ghana. His father, Chief Eno Baise Kurentsi who later became known as John Corrente was a slave trader and an important ally for any trader in the city. When William Ansah Sessarakoo was old enough, his father sent him to England in an attempt for him to gain quality education and to build a partnership with the English to gain accurate information about the happenings in Europe. Sessarakoo was sent aboard a ship and entrusted to the captain for transport. Instead, the ship’s captain sold Sessarakoo into slavery in Barbados. He was discovered in Barbados years later by a free Fante trader who alerted John Corrente. Corrente petitioned the British to free his son. The Royal African Company, the English company operating the slave trade freed him and transported him to England before he was later sent home.