His father’s father was a chieftain, captured with his family in war, sold to the slavers, and brought to America. He fled at one time from Virginia, where he was enslaved, taking with him his wife and two sons, born to him on this continent, and, after various wanderings, reached Little York--as Toronto, Canada, was then called--unmolested. But even there he was pursued, and “by some fiction of law, international policy, old musty treaty, cozenly understood,” says Major Delany, he was brought back to the United States. The fallen old chief afterwards is said to have lost his life in an encounter with some slaveholder, who attempted to chastise him into submission. On his mother’s side the claim receives additional strength. The story runs that her father was an African prince, from the Niger valley regions of Central Africa; was captured when young, during hostilities between the Mandingoes, Fellahtas, and Houssa, sold, and brought to America at the same time with his betrothed Graci. His name was Shango, surnamed Peace, from that of a great African deity of protection, which is represented in their worship as a ram’s head with the attribute of fire. The form and attributes of this deity are so described as to render it probable that the idol Shango, of modern Africa, is the same to which ancient Egypt paid divine homage under the name of Jupiter Ammon. This still remaining the popular deity of all the region of Central Africa, is an evidence sufficient in itself to prove not only nativity, but descent. For in accordance with the laws of the people of that region, none took, save by inheritance, so sacred a name as Shango, and the one thus named was entitled to the chief power. From this source this American family claim their ancestry. Shango, at an early period of his servitude in America, regained his liberty, and returned to Africa. Whether owing to the fact that the slave system was not so thoroughly established then,--that is, had no legal existence,--or the early slaveholders had not then lost their claims to civilization, it was recognized among themselves that no African of noble birth should be continued enslaved, proofs of his claims being adduced. Thus, by virtue of his birth, Shango was enabled to return to his home. His wife, Graci, was afterwards restored to freedom by the same means. She remained in America, and died at the age of one hundred and seven, in the family of her only daughter, Pati, the mother of Major Delany.