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Jefferson's Muslim fugitives : the lost story of enslaved Africans, their Arabic letters, and an American president

Title: Jefferson's Muslim fugitives : the lost story of enslaved Africans, their Arabic letters, and an American president / Jeffrey Einboden.
Author: Einboden, Jeffrey
Publication: New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan Available - Can be used on site. Please visit New York Public Library - Schomburg Center to submit a request in person.	Text	Use in library	Sc E 23-1329	Schomburg Center - Research & Reference

Details

Description

xv, 330 pages : illustrations; 25 cm

Summary

"On October 3, 1807, Thomas Jefferson was contacted by an unknown traveler from the American frontier, who urgently requested a private "interview" with the President, promising to disclose "a matter of momentous importance". By the next day, Jefferson held in his hands two astonishing manuscripts whose history has been lost for over two centuries. Authored by Muslims fleeing captivity in rural Kentucky, these documents delivered to the President in 1807 were penned by literate African slaves, and written entirely in Arabic. Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives reveals the untold story of two escaped West Africans in the American heartland whose Arabic writings reached a sitting U.S. President, prompting him to intervene on their behalf. Recounting a quest for emancipation that crosses borders of race, region and religion, Jeffrey Einboden unearths Arabic manuscripts that circulated among Jefferson and his prominent peers, including a document from 1780s Georgia identified as the earliest surviving example of Muslim slave authorship in the newly-formed United States. Revealing Jefferson's lifelong entanglements with Islam and captivity, Jefferson's Muslim Fugitives tracks the ascent of Arabic slave writings to the highest halls of U.S. power, while questioning why such vital legacies from the American past have been entirely forgotten."--

Alternative Title

Lost story of enslaved Africans, their Arabic letters, and an American president

Subject

Genre/Form

History

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

"A Matter of Momentous Importance" -- "Beyond Oure Expressing" -- "The Original Treaty in Arabic" -- "Written in fair Arabic Characters" -- "I take Refuge with the Lord of Daybreak" -- "His name is 'Usman" -- "Combinations of Letters" -- "Go to Mecca; and God will Render you Victorious" -- "Wr s Unavdble" -- "Mr Jefferson is in Reality a Musselman" -- "The Prayer of the Poorest Slave of God" -- "The Runners" -- "Conquest is Close" -- "A Word of any Language" -- "Seven of the Arab Dialects" -- "Humanity certainly Pleads Loud" -- "Supposed to be Spys" -- "His Mountain is made a sort of Mecca" -- "A Sect by Myself" -- "Slave of the Most Merciful" -- "Their Eulogy will be Uttered in other Languages" -- "A Barely Discernible Horizon."

Call Number

Sc E 23-1329

ISBN

9780190844479
0190844477
9780190844486 (canceled/invalid)
9780190844493 (canceled/invalid)
9780190063917 (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

2019036456

OCLC

1135092497

Author

Einboden, Jeffrey, author.

Title

Jefferson's Muslim fugitives : the lost story of enslaved Africans, their Arabic letters, and an American president / Jeffrey Einboden.

Publisher

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2020]

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Local Note

AUTH: NO. ILLINOIS U. ARABIC LETTERS BY MUSLIM SLAVES ENCOURAGED JEFFERSON TO INTERCEDE FOR THEM.

Chronological Term

1800-1899

Research Call Number

Sc E 23-1329

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