Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (c. 1710-1775)

Research Tips

This person of African descent has 4 related events in the database, listed at the bottom of this page.
Identifier
NJS-PER-00350
Given Name
Ukawsaw
Family Name
Gronniosaw
Alternate Name
James Albert
Birth Date
1710
Value Annotations
Date Certainty
Approximate
Death Date
1775
Sex
Male
Occupation
Domestic Service
Maritime
Military and Militia
Biographical Description
Ukawsaw Gronniosaw was born in Bornu (present-day northeastern Nigeria) around 1710 (his exact year of birth is unknown). As a young man he was captured in Africa and sold to a Dutch slave trader. He survived a treacherous voyage from Africa to the Caribbean and then to New York. He was enslaved by Cornelius Van Horne who had a plantation near the Reformed Dutch Church of Raritan, Somerset County (present-day area of Finderne in Bridgewater Township). Gronniosaw was then sold by Van Horne to the minister Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen and came to live with Frelinghuysen at Three Mile Run.

Gronniosaw missed his family in Africa and suffered greatly because of this. He repeatedly asked the Rev. Frelinghuysen to allow him to return to his family, but he never got a chance to go back home. He was taught about the Christian faith by the minister. Although Gronniosaw found the tenets of his enslaver's faith strange at first, he eventually converted to Christianity.

Upon the Rev. Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen’s death, Ukawsaw Gronniosaw was granted his freedom, albeit with the understanding that he would stay on and remain as a servant to the household. Eventually, Gronniosaw left New Jersey and the Frelinghuysen family and became a sailor. He sailed throughout the Caribbean and Europe and then settled in England, taking the English name James Albert. It was here in England that he published his autobiography in 1772. The book was titled: A Narrative of the Most Remarkable Particulars in the Life of James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw, An African Prince, as Related by Himself. This is one of the earliest autobiographies ever published by a formerly enslaved person. The book provides a rare glimpse of what life was like for enslaved people in the Raritan River Valley in the middle of the 18th century. Gronniosaw died in Chester, England, in 1775.
Keywords
African descent person
Places
Bornu
Africa
Barbados, West Indies (Caribbean)
New York City, New York
Finderne, Bridgewater (formerly Raritan)
Three Mile Run, New Brunswick
Old Dutch Parsonage, Somerville (originally in Finderne aka Raritan)
Chester, England
Enslaved by
Theodorus Jacobus Frelinghuysen (1691-1747)
Cornelius Van Horne (1693-1770)
References

Bayker, Jesse, Christopher Blakley, and Kendra Boyd. "His Name Was Will: Remembering Enslaved Individuals in Rutgers History." In Scarlet and Black: Vol. 1, Slavery and Dispossession in Rutgers History, edited by Marisa Fuentes and Deborah Gray White, 58–81. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2016. https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1k3s9r0.7

Van Rossum, Helene. “Updates about Ukawsaw Gronniosaw Part 1: The Van Horne Plantation.” What Exit? New Jerseyana at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives (blog), August 23, 2023. https://sinclairnj.blogs.rutgers.edu/2023/08/updates-about-ukawsaw-gronniosaw-part-1-the-van-horne-plantation/

Van Rossum, Helene. “Updates about Ukawsaw Gronniosaw Part 2: Frelinghuysen’s Convert.” What Exit? New Jerseyana at Rutgers University Special Collections and University Archives (blog), September 8, 2023. https://sinclairnj.blogs.rutgers.edu/2023/09/updates-about-ukawsaw-gronniosaw-part-2-frelinghuysens-convert/

Carretta, Vincent. “Gronniosaw, Ukawsaw Pseud. James Albert, Freed Slave and Autobiographer.” In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press, 2004. Online edition May 2015. https://doi.org/10.1093/acref/9780195301731.013.34427

Hanley, Ryan. “Calvinism, Proslavery and James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw.”Slavery & Abolition 36, no. 2 (April 3, 2015): 360–81. https://doi.org/10.1080/0144039X.2014.920973

“James Albert Ukawsaw Gronniosaw,“ Enslaved: Peoples of the Historical Slave Trade, Section: Stories. https://enslaved.org/fullStory/16-23-126809/.

This person is represented on the following page(s):
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukawsaw_Gronniosaw
Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q3547868
Record Contributor
Jesse Bayker
Linked Sources

Author:
Linked Events

Primary Participant in:
Resource class
Agent