Ukawsaw Gronniosaw's autobiography recounted his early life in present-day Nigeria, his enslavement, and his eventual emancipation.
18 Facts About Ukawsaw Gronniosaw
1.
2.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw said he was doted on as the grandson of the king of Zaara.
3.
In New Jersey, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw was taught to read and brought up as a Christian.
4.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw wrote in his autobiography that he wanted to return to his family in Africa, but Frelinghuysen denied this request and told him to focus on the Christian faith.
5.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw worked for the minister's widow and, subsequently, their orphans, but all died within four years.
6.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw served in Martinique and Cuba, before obtaining his discharge and sailing to England.
7.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw already had a child and bore him at least two more.
8.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw lost her job because of the financial depression and industrial unrest and moved to Colchester.
9.
On Christmas Day 1771, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw had their remaining children, Mary Albert, Edward Albert, and newborn Samuel Albert, baptised in the Old Independent Meeting House in Kidderminster by Benjamin Fawcett, a Dissenting minister and associate of Selina Hastings, Countess of Huntingdon and a significant figure in Calvinistic Methodism.
10.
At around the same time, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw received a letter and a charitable donation from Hastings herself.
11.
Shortly after he arrived in Kidderminster, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw began work on his life story with the help of an amanuensis from Leominster, possibly the "Mrs Marlowe" he had mentioned in his letter to Hastings.
12.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw's Narrative has been studied by scholars as a groundbreaking work by an African in English.
13.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw's Narrative concludes with its author still living in Kidderminster, having "appear[ed] to be turn'd sixty"; for a long time, nothing was known of his later life.
14.
However, at some point during the late twentieth century, an obituary for Ukawsaw Gronniosaw was discovered in the Chester Chronicle.
15.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw left his country in the early part of his life, with a view to acquire proper notions of the Divine Being, and of the worship due to Him.
16.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw met with many trials and embarrassments, was much afflicted and persecuted.
17.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw was attracted to this last town because it was at one time the home of Richard Baxter, a 17th-century Nonconformist minister whom Gronniosaw had learned to admire.
18.
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw interprets Gronniosaw's experience of enslavement and his being transported from Bornu to New York as an example of Calvinist predestination and election.