- Free, registration required!
- 77 Forest St, Hartford, Stowe Visitor Center
- 6:00 – 8:00 PM EST | book signing, presentation, and Q & A
Her Royal Highness Princess Karen W.S. Brengettsy-Chatman, the sovereign of The Official Royal House of Sori and the Founder of The Root Nine Foundation and Institute, has officially published her personal journey discovering her relation to Prince Abdulrahman Ibrahima ibn Sori.
Prince Abdulrahman Ibrahima ibn Sori was a Prince from the Kingdom of Fouta Djallon, a region in modern day Guinea. Prince Sori, born in 1762 and the heir to Fouta Djallon, spoke several languages, highly educated in Islam and politics, and lead an army of 2,000 people. After a raid by enemy troops, Prince Sori was kidnapped and then trafficked into American slavery.
Prince Abdulrahman Ibrahima ibn Sori, at the age of 26, was enslaved in Natchez, Mississippi. While fighting for his own survival in slavery, he married Isabella, a 25-year-old enslaved midwife, and they went on to have nine children. Prince Sori’s eventually purchased his freedom with the complicated help of a British surgeon, a reporter, Secretary of State Henry Clay, and the Sultan of Morocco.
Unfortunately, Prince Sori was only able to collect funds to purchase Isabella’s freedom but not the freedom of their nine children. Thomas H. Gallaudet, one of the founders of the American School for the Deaf, and other members of the American Colonization Society, helped Prince Sori and Isabella travel to Liberia with the intent that they would be Christian missionaries. Prince Sori, who hoped that he would be reunited with his children, unfortunately passed away months later.
Her Royal Highness Princess Karen W. S. Brengettsy-Chatman is the first living descendent of Prince Sori to write about her family line. In The Last Crown of Prince Abdulrahman Ibrahima Ibn Sori and The Sovereign’s Redemption, Princess Karen with archival accuracy follows the life of Esther, a daughter of Prince Sori, to Esther’s children and grandchildren, all the way up to Princess Karen. In the words of Princess Karen: “As Sovereign of the Official Royal House of Sori, I redeemed the lost crown of Prince Abdulrahman, preserving the royal bloodline they tried to silence through enslavement but could never erase.”
So, please join the Stowe Center for Literary Activism on November 7th, 2025, from 6:00 – 8:00 PM, at the Stowe Visitor Center. From 6:00 – 6:30 PM, you can meet Princess Karen and purchase her book! Then settle in for an evening of learning about her journey of archiving her ancestors followed by a conversation and Q&A with Trinity Assistant Dean, Reverend John Selder Jr.
