 A final figure worthy of mention in this context is Anton Wilhelm Amo, the first African-born professor of philosophy in Germany. Amo was born in Axim in present-day Ghana around 1700, but was brought to the Netherlands as a small boy in 1707 through the Dutch West India Company. Shortly after, he was given to the young Anton Ulrich, Duke of Wolfenbüttel-Braunschweig, and baptized on 29 July 1708. Amo evidently worked as a servant in the Duke’s court in Wolffenbüttel, though he would also receive an education which prepared him sufficiently for study at the Friedrichs-Universität in Halle, where he matriculated on 9 June 1727. There, Amo studied philosophy and law, and it is reported that he presented a (now lost) disputation in November 1729 entitled De jure maurorum in Europa (On the Rights of Moors in Europe), in which he contended (according to a contemporary account) against the legality of slavery in the Holy Roman Empire given that the privileges granted to African kings by the (old) Roman Emperor meant that they were vassals of the Empire, and entitled to consideration under the law.