African Muslims in Antebellum America, by Allan D. Austin (TPB, 1997, $2.25)
Had you ever thought that some slaves kidnapped in African were Muslims? Not many people have, mostly because little is known.
African Muslims slaves considered themselves different from other slaves. As Muslims they were monotheistic, and most were literate. They had learned Arabic in Quranic Schools. To be a good Muslim you needed to be able to read the Quaran, so literacy was expected. Most Muslim slaves were from the elite, professional class.
This caused confusion for their white owners. These new slaves were strange. They could write, but in a strange language. They refused to give up their "African" religion, and wouldn't marry, except to a Muslim woman.
It took awhile for the owners to figure it was more productive to make Muslims managers instead of having them work the fields. The whites figured the Muslims just had to be Arabs, since blacks were never that smart. The Muslims viewed themselves as superior to other blacks, but also to any whites. And what did non-Muslim African slaves think of all this? Austin doesn't say, but they could not have been happy seeing strange newcomers put into positions of power.
The wish for these Muslim slaves, as for most slaves, was to return to Africa. Strangely, many Muslim slaves actually did return, and usually not to Liberia. Some ran away, and managed to get back. Some earned or were given their freedom and went home.
Austin has studied the diaries and writing of more than 70 of these men, reporting on 7 of them in detail. Austin hopes new information on both sexes of Muslim slaves will come to light in the future. Look for this book on the new non-fiction table. (L-Af.Am)
