African Muslims in Antebellum America : Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles

Possessors of strong identities and a powerful faith, African Muslims made an impressive but understudied impact on America. From their proud insistence on covering their bodies, praying to one God, reading and writing in Arabic, and adhering to positive attitudes about Africa and Islam throughout the Antebellum period, these Africans aroused much apprehension in and commanded many accommodations from their American purchasers. As many were experienced leaders in political, religious, commercial, military or agricultural matters in Africa -- some were returned to Africa while others became leaders within the slave system in America. A condensation and updating of his "African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook" (1984), noted scholar of antebellum black writing and history Dr. Allan D. Austin explores, via portraits, documents, maps, and texts, the lives of 50 sub-Saharan non-peasant Muslim Africans caught in the slave trade between 1730 and 1860. Also includes five maps "Muslim slaves in the eighteenth-century colonies? Islam in antebellum America? Allan Austin, notes scholar of antebellum black writing and history, here tells the remarkable stories of dozens of African Muslims--all from sub-Saharan Africa, and none of them peasants--who were taken as slaves between 1730 and 1860. Examining fragments of evidence left to us, Austin establishes a picture of the African Muslim slaves: proudly insistent on covering their bodies, reading and writing Arabic, respectful of both Africa and Islam, praying to one God. Though slaves, these individuals aroused apprehension among their purchasers, from whom they extracted many accommodations of their religious and cultural identities. Moreover, many of them had been political, religious, commercial, or military leaders in Africa. Some of them were returned to Africa, while others became leaders within America's slave system. African Muslims in Antebellum American a condensation and updating of the author's 1984 African Muslims in Antebellum America : a Sourcebook, opens wide a rich and important dimension in the study of American cultural and religious history."--Cover Cover 1 African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles 4 Copyright 5 Contents 6 Acknowledgments 8 Preface 10 Maps and Illustrations 12 1 "There Are Good Men in America, but All Are Very Ignorant of Africa" —and Its Muslims 18 2 Glimpses of Seventy-Five African Muslims in Antebellum North America 46 3 Job Ben Solomon: African Nobleman and a Father of African American Literature 66 4 Abd ar-Rahman and His Two Amazing American Journeys 80 5 Bilali Mohammed and Salih Bilali: Almaamys on Georgia's Sapelo and St. Simon's Islands 100 6 Lamine Kebe, Educator 130 7 Umar ibn Said's Legend(s), Life, and Letters 144 8 The Transatlantic Trials of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua 174 9 Mohammed Ali ben Said, or Nicholas Said: His Travels on Five Continents 188 Index 202 Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles Allan D. Austin explores via portraits, documents, maps and texts, the lives of 50 sub-Saharan non-peasant Muslim Africans caught in the American slave trade between 1730 and 1860. "There are good men in Africa, but all are very ignorant of Africa," declared the African-born Lamine Kebe in 1835, after forty years of American slavery in three Southern states.