William Ansah Sessarakoo

William Ansah Sessarakoo ( 1735 – 1770) was a Fante trader and public figure, best known for his enslavement in the West Indies, subsequent rescue, and high-profile stay in England. He was both prominent among the Fante people and influential among Europeans concerned with the transatlantic slave trade.

His father, John Corrente, had previously sent Ansah's brother to France, and around 1744 he arranged to have Ansah travel to England to gain an education, curry favor with the British, and serve as his eyes and ears in Europe. The ship captain entrusted with Ansah's transport, however, sold him into slavery along with the rest of the human cargo in Barbados before going on to England. Ansah remained enslaved there for several years, until a free Fante trader happened to recognize him and quickly alerted Corrente of his son's fate.

Corrente petitioned the British Royal African Company for aid, who sent an agent to emancipate Ansah and complete his transport to England, finally arriving in the summer of 1748. Upon his delayed arrival, Ansah was received as a prince and quickly became a fascination of London's high society. Most notably, he attended a live performance of Oroonoko, and, much to the audience's surprise, fled the theater in tears. The play depicted a wrongly enslaved African prince who likely reminded Ansah much of himself.

Upon returning to Anomabu in 1750, Ansah took up work as a writer at Cape Coast Castle, the primary British fortification on the Gold Coast. After leaving Cape Coast on bad terms, Ansah worked as a slave trader. The details of his death are unknown.

Early life 1736 map of West Africa. Annamaboe is identified as an English-aligned port. Ansah was born in Annamaboe (modern-day Anomabu, Ghana), sometime in the 1730s, to Eno Baisie Kurentsi (rendered "John Corrente" by Europeans). Annamaboe was at that time the largest slave-trading port on the Gold Coast and the preeminent member of the Fante Confederacy. Corrente was described by European traders as "absolute master at Annamaboe", holding the greatest authority in matters of politics, commerce, diplomacy, and military in the town and surrounding region. Most importantly to Westerners, Corrente was the chief caboceer—those responsible for supplying African slaves to European traders—and therefore Ansah and his family were of interest to the many European polities competing for access to abundant trade from Annamaboe.

By the time of Ansah's birth, the primary competitors were France and England. The British had constructed a fort at Annamaboe in 1674, but it was abandoned and destroyed by 1731, as the Royal African Company was in a declining economic state. With the French aiming to gain a foothold on the Gold Coast, Corrente seized every opportunity to play them and the British against each other, accepting lavish gifts from both. One such concession from the French was the opportunity to have one of his sons (Ansah's half-brother, named Bassi) be educated and feted in Paris. Bassi returned to Annamaboe with a European education and extensive knowledge of France, having even been introduced to the King. Corrente's strengthening relationship with France, however, worried the English traders in Annamaboe. In turn, the Royal African Company offered to host another of Corrente's sons in London. Corrente eagerly agreed to send Ansah.

Enslavement and rescue Some time between 1741 and 1746, Ansah was taken aboard a ship under the command of Captain Hamilton, which was to convey him to London after offloading its cargo of slaves in the West Indies along the way. Hamilton, however, betrayed Ansah's trust and sold him also into slavery in Bridgetown, Barbados. John Corrente and the Fante people, having lost contact with Ansah, could only presume him dead.

The exact nature or extent of Ansah's servitude on Barbados are not known. The purported Memoirs of the Young Prince, written in 1750 by an anonymous Englishman, states only that "he fell into the Hands of a Gentleman of distinguished Character, where he was treated with much Humanity". This "gentleman" was probably Jonathan Blenman, the Attorney General of Barbados, whose name was recorded on Ansah's bill of sale. Once the news of Ansah's enslavement reached Annamaboe, Corrente insisted that Ansah be freed and conveyed the rest of the way to England. British officials agreed, concluding that securing his son's freedom "will be a means to conciliate Corrantee to, and rivet him in the Interest of the British Nation in opposition to the French". More fine clothing was purchased for them at Crichton's expense, and Ansah had his portrait painted by Gabriel Mathias in a characteristically English red coat.

In the most widely reported incident of Ansah's time in England, he and Frederick attended a showing of Oroonoko, a play depicting the wrongful enslavement of an African prince and his wife by a duplicitous European slave trader. The African prince, Oronooko, and his wife, Imoinda, are sold into slavery and transported to the West Indies where they are forced to work long hours alongside lowly slaves. When Imoinda becomes pregnant, Oroonoko stages a slave rebellion. The rebellion ends poorly, however, and Oroonoko is forced to kill Imoinda and is himself publicly executed. Given his kidnapping, Ansah likely related to Oroonoko on a very basic level. Ansah was overcome and left the theater before the final act, while Frederick remained but visibly wept through the remainder of the performance, attracting much sympathy.

Ansah's visit to England was never meant to be permanent, and he thus departed for home and a return to the Fante people in December 1750. He arrived, in April 1751, "elaborately dressed in the latest style befitting his station" with an English education and immense understanding of English culture. In her reply, Zara is incredulous that his betrayers would dare to bind "a prince, whom no indignities could hide", but is gratified that he now finds himself freed and "in Britain's happy courts to shine".

A purportedly nonfiction work was also anonymously published as The Royal African: or, Memoirs of the Young Prince of Annamaboe in 1750, though it was "as much a piece of pro-RAC polemic as a biographical account". It made the case that separate traders (those operating outside the aegis of the Royal African Company) exhibited a "mercenary lack of regard for traditional social hierarchy" which had led to Ansah's enslavement and the subsequent endangerment of British primacy at Annamaboe. This was in contrast with the RAC, which "carried on a most glorious and profitable Trade" with "the Wealthiest and the Freest" people of the Gold Coast.