African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles

by Allan D. Austin

Overview

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415912693
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	04/30/1997
Edition description:	REVISED & UPDATED
Pages:	212
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Allan D. Austin is Professor of English and Afro-American Studies at Springfield College.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 “;There Are Good Men in America, but All Are Very Ignorant of Africa”—and Its Muslims; Chapter 2 Glimpses of Seventy-Five African Muslims in Antebellum North America; Chapter 3 Job Ben Solomon; Chapter 4 Abd ar-Rahman and His Two Amazing American Journeys; Chapter 5 Bilali Mohammed and Salih Bilali; Chapter 6 Lamine Kebe, Educator; Chapter 7 Umar ibn Said’s Legend(s), Life, and Letters; Chapter 8 The Transatlantic Trials of Mahommah Gardo Baquaqua; Chapter 9 Mohammed Ali ben Said, or Nicholas Said;

Editorial Reviews

"Austin uses historical documents, including photos, to tell adventurous, distressing and sometimes funny stories of enslaved African Muslims between 11730 and 1860. All left some record of their presence in America." — Navid Iqbal, The Star-Ledger, Newark, New Jersey
"...highly recommended..." — The Journal of American History
"...attractively produced..." — Journal of Southern History
"Austin offers meticulously researched profiles of Muslim Africans who lived during the antebellum era
." — Amsterdam News

From the Publisher

In this updated condensation of his African Muslims in Antebellum America: A Sourcebook (1984), Austin sketches the experiences of some 75 Muslims seized in sub-Saharan Africa and enslaved in North America between 1730 and 1860. Expanding his commentary and condensing his excerpts from autobiographical or biographical narratives, Austin develops the character of individual Muslims more than in his sourcebook. He illuminates their lives and thoughts in ways that reveal the embarrassing limits imposed by race and religion on general historical understanding of first-generation Africans in America. A complement to Richard Brent Turner's Islam in the African-American Experience (LJ 6/1/97), this work is essential for collections on early America, African Americans, and U.S. history or religion or Islam in the United States.Thomas J. Davis, Arizona State Univ., Tempe

Library Journal