Double portrait after William Hoare of Bath (left, of Diallo) and Gabriel Mathias (right, of Sessarakoo), from the 'Gentleman's Magazine', June 1750.

Ayuba Suleiman Diallo, who became known in Europe as Job ben Solomon (1701-73), was from a prominent family of African Muslim religious leaders in the kingdom of Futa (in modern-day Senegal/Gambia). He was captured and sold into slavery on a tobacco plantation in Maryland but his release was secured by Thomas Bluett, a lawyer, who brought him to England in 1733. Fashionable society interest in him there anticipated that with Omai, the Tahitian who returned from Cook's second voyage in the early 1770s. Before returning as a free man to Africa in 1734, and despite a Muslim disinclination to be painted, Diallo was persuaded to sit to Hoare for a 30 x 25-inch oil portrait, in reverse to the image here, and chose to be shown in African dress of white robes and turban (round a red cap). This - also visible here - included the Koran suspended round his neck in a red leather binding or close-fitting bag, of which the suspension thong forms part.

William Ansah Sessarakoo was son of the King of Akaramu, one of the powerful slave brokers on the Gold Coast. In 1744 Ansah set out on a trading mission to Britain but was kidnapped by the captain of the ship and himself sold into slavery. Four years later he was freed and became the toast of London society when in England in 1749-50. His experiences as a slave made him an early black champion of abolition. His image here is probably derived (in reverse) from a high quality mezzotint of 1749 by John Faber junior, showing him similarly dressed and wigged, but with a hat under his left arm. This was after a half-length oil by Gabriel Mathias (d. 1804) and there is an example in the British Museum.

The similarly reversed image of Diallo here is probably also derived from an earlier engraving from Hoare's oil portrait. For such a print and further details on the painting see ZBA2711.