author
James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw
A pioneering voice in Black British literature, he told the story of enslavement, conversion, and survival in one of the earliest autobiographies by an African published in Britain. His life writing remains a rare firsthand window into the 18th-century Atlantic world.
1 Audiobook
A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, as Related by Himself
by James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw
About the author
Born in the kingdom of Bornu, in what is now northeastern Nigeria, James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw was taken from Africa and enslaved while still young. He was later sold in the Americas, where he experienced both bondage and religious awakening before eventually gaining his freedom.
He is best known for A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, an African Prince, as Related by Himself, published in Bath in 1772. The book is widely recognized as the first published autobiography by an African in Britain, and one of the earliest slave narratives in English.
After crossing the Atlantic world, Gronniosaw spent part of his later life in Britain with his family, facing periods of hardship and poverty. Almost everything known about him comes from his own narrative, which gives his story a directness and emotional force that still stands out today.