Ezekiel Johnson, Sarah Feinman and Garrett Sweeney
In our group we researched two different types of people that were connected through the New York Central College in McGrawville, New York. These people were Mary Lewis and Mahommah Baquaqua. Mary Lewis was an African American activist who was always fighting for her people of the same race during this time period around/during the civil war. She lived mainly in the United States apart from the portion of her life when she studied in Rome for a little while. She was very popular and newspapers all around the country had articles on her work and what she was doing to progress equality for African Americans and also honoring fallen African American soldiers in the civil war.
Baquaqua moved around the world a little more than Mary Lewis. Baquaqua started off born in his village in Zoogoo, West Africa which I believe is modern day Burkina Faso. He was then captured by Europeans for slavery and sent to Brazil. After he arrived he was bought by the captain of the ship who was heading for New York. This changed his life entirely. He arrived and eventually escaped with the help of abolitionists and moved to Boston. After this he eventually made it to McGrawville to attend the New York Central College where he and Mary Lewis were connected.
Here is a map of where the two have been to give a better picture of their travels. The red points are Mary Lewis and the blue points are Mahommah Baquaqua.
