The History of African Americans and Islam

1819

Twenty to 30 percent of the Africans enslaved in North America were Muslims

Muslims have been in America since before the nation’s founding. Though the number of Muslims in early America decreased over time, their letters, diaries, and autobiographies remain. Like other enslaved Africans, African Muslims maintained many of their religious beliefs and customs. Enslaved African Muslims in America also used their ability to read and write Arabic to form new communities and maintain identities outside slavery.

Yarrow Mamout was born in Guinea, West Africa, and enslaved in Washington, D.C. Mamout could read and write Arabic and some English as well. Freed in 1796 at age 60, Mamout became a property owner and entrepreneur. American painter Charles Willson Peale painted this portrait of Mamout.