Seriki Abass Williams was originally from a village called Ijoga Orile in Ogun State, Nigeria.
He was sold as a slave to one Abass at Dahomey Kingdom in Benin Republic.
He was later resold to a Brazilian slave merchant Williams but later released on negotiation to become a slave merchant exporting African slaves for Mr Williams.
However Originally his Yoruba name was Famerilekun but he changed his name by bearing the names of his previous Masters Abass and Williams as was the norm during slave era.
When he came back to Nigeria, he relocated to Badagry town in Lagos State built a house just opposite (GBEREFU ISLAND) the waterways that leads to the Point of No Return for ease of transporting his slaves.The building was named ‘The Brazilian Barracoon’. It is up of 40 sets of rooms used as slave prison. The rooms are really very small and each was used to house about 40 slaves. Male and females were kept separately.
He was a Muslim, well-educated and could speak English, Dutch, Portuguese, Spanish and Yoruba languages.
He married 128 wives and had 144 children. Not so much was told about his wives and children, although rumour has it that he also sold some of his wives and children as slave. Some of his grandchildren and great grand children are still living within the compound while some moved back to Ogun State, lagos town and Kaduna state. The tomb of his last son is also found within his compound.
He finally died on June 11, 1919.
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