Imani Fencers Foundation

Abraham Hannibal

RUSSIAN GENERAL AND COMRADE OF PETER THE GREAT (d. 1782)

HISTORY CONTAINS FEW FIGURES more extraordinary than Abraham Hannibal. Stolen from his parents in Africa and sold into slavery, he became general-in-chief of one of the leading white empires of his day. His great-grandson became one of the world's greatest poets, while other of his descendants became members of the leading royal families of Europe.

Destiny was kind to Hannibal from the beginning; instead of being sent to America, where he would have been at best a house servant, he was taken to Turkey. At that time, while Africans were languishing in slavery in America, some of their brothers, also from the jungles, were the pampered pets of European royalty, especially at the court of Russia.

Still a child, Hannibal was sold as a slave to Sultan Selim IV at Constantinople, where he attracted the attention of Count Raguinsky, the Russian ambassador. Wishing to take an unusual gift to the czar, Raguinsky secured Hannibal either by kidnapping or as a gift, and took him back to Russia.

Merry, vivacious, and intelligent, the ten-year-old boy captivated Peter the Great, who adopted him immediately. With Christina, Queen of Poland, as his godmother, Hannibal was baptized into the Christian faith. Peter gave him his own name, but the boy, whose real name was Ibrahim, wept so bitterly at the change that thereafter he was called Abraham, the Christian equivalent of his own name. Hannibal was later added as a tribute to his military skill. However, his parents, who later appeared on the scene, claimed that he was descended from the great Carthaginian and that his real name was Hannibal. The lad showed special talent for mathematics and engineering and Peter sent him to Paris to study. There, as the czar's protégé, he was received in the highest circles. His exotic appearance won him the favor of the ladies of the gay court of the Duke of Orleans, who was then regent; indeed the duke himself offered Hannibal a high position if he would transfer his allegiance to him. But Hannibal, though preferring the gayer and more cultured French atmosphere, remained loyal to his master, even though at this time Peter, preoccupied with the affairs of state, had quite forgotten Hannibal who, finding himself without money, thought of returning on foot to Russia.

While Hannibal was pursuing his studies war broke out between France and Spain. He accepted a commission in the French army, serving with valor until he was wounded in the head. Soon afterward he returned to Russia where he became an officer in the engineers' corps, winning rapid promotion on his own merits. About this time his people in Africa, discovering his whereabouts, sent a rich ransom for him, but he refused to leave his benefactor. Peter appointed him tutor in mathematics to the crown prince, later Peter II. As this post gave him great influence with the future ruler, he became of considerable importance to those engaged in court intrigue. As a result of this, fortune was to turn Previous Page against him after the death of Peter the Great for the next sixteen years.

On Peter's death in 1735 the throne was seized by his wife, Catherine I, grandmother of Peter, the real heir, who was set aside, the chief power being in the hands of Prince Menshikov. Menshikov, who was of humble origin, having started as a common soldier, wanted to marry his daughter to the young Peter. Knowing Hannibal's influence with Peter, he tried to bribe him. Hannibal, who had sworn to Peter the Great that he would protect his grandson, refused, and Menshikov, to stop his influence with the prince, sent him on a military mission to Siberia. Then to lengthen his stay he ordered him to take the exact measurements of the Great Wall of China, which was 1,500 miles long. Menshikov hoped that Hannibal would not survive the hardships of this undertaking. Hannibal remained in Siberia until the death of Catherine in 1737. Learning that young Peter had ascended the throne, that Menshikov had been exiled, and that Dolgouriki, a former favorite of Peter the Great, was in control, he decided to return. But at Tomsk he was arrested. Dolgouriki feared his influence with Peter no less than Menshikov-and he was held there until Peter's death two years later.

Peter was succeeded by Anna the Bloody, a niece of Peter the Great. Once more Hannibal started for St. Petersburg, but when he reached it he was compelled to go into hiding, as he was suspected of belonging to the faction that wanted to put Elisabeth, daughter of Peter the Great and rightful heir, on the throne. Hannibal escaped, thanks to his friend Field-Marshal Munich, who smuggled him out of the city and sent him to inspect the fortifications on the Swedish border. This duty done, he was sent to a little village near the city of Reval where he spent the next twelve years of Anna's reign, almost forgotten.

On Anna's death, Elisabeth came to the throne, and grateful to Hannibal for his unswerving loyalty to the family of Peter the Great, she showered honors on him. Among her gifts were ten villages with thousands of white serfs. She wished him to remain at court, but remembering what his influence there had once cost him, he declined, and asked permission to return to Reval, where he was made commander. But his retirement was short. He was one of the empire's leading engineers, and when a dispute arose with Sweden over the boundary in 1752, he was appointed head of the Russian commission to settle the matter. Still later, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the army. But in spite of all these honors, the title Previous Pagehe cherished the most was "The Negro of Peter the Great."

Hannibal had other troubles, too--domestic ones. He had married a very beautiful woman, the daughter of a Greek captain named Dioper. During his long absences she had found consolation elsewhere and had presented to him a daughter who showed no African blood. Hannibal sued for divorce and the ensuing trial was one of the most celebrated of its day. It dragged on for fifteen years while scientists discussed at great length the question of whether the offspring of a black and white couple could be "pure" white. Hannibal finally won, whereupon the unfaithful wife, seeking to justify her actions, said, "That Negro is not of our race," She was punished severely. In addition to the court's censure, she was forced to do public penance and to spend the remainder of her life in a convent. As for the white daughter, Hannibal kept her in his house, gave her a good education, and left her considerable property but never permitted her to come into his presence.

While the case was pending, he married a titled German woman, Regina von Schellberg, by whom he had eleven children, all bonafide mulattoes, five of whom were sons, and all of whom attained distinction. The cidest, Ivan, was a naval commander who was victorious over the Turks at Navarin and was also the hero of the battle of Chesma. Later he was Governor of Ukraine and founded the city of Kherson. After a quarrel with Potemkin, the powerful favorite of Catherine the Great, he retired to his estates.

Another son, Joseph, was a naval commander and a navigator. His daughter, Nadejda, married Count Pushkin, whose grandfather had been privy counsellor to Peter the Great and whose father had borne the scepter at the coronation of Catherine the Great. Her son, Alexander Pushkin, was the famous poet. Hannibal continued in favor under Catherine the Great, who appointed him to draw up plans for a canal linking St. Petersburg with Moscow. Finally he retired to his estates, immensely rich, and died there in 1782, over ninety years old. Pushkin, who was born seventeen years after Hannibal's death, and who, in preparation for his book The Negro of Peter the Great, had gathered details from those who had known his illustrious ancester, describes him as "A pure Negro--flat nose, thick lips, woolly hair."

D. M. Wallace, British ambassador to Russia, says of him. "Hannibal, who died with the rank of Commander-in-Chief, was a Negro."