Slaves in the Americas came from Muslim West Africa, either abducted by Europeans directly or sold by African owners. This trade continued well into the 19th century. Today pantheistic African religions are followed by descendents of these slaves, mainly in Cuba, Haiti, and Brazil. But not, to my knowledge, Islam.
Why didn’t Islam survive the slave trade in the New World? Considering the massive numbers involved, I’d swear there would be some Muslim tradition in the Americas, but I’ve never heard of it. Is there one? And if not, why did Islam take so long to be established here?
There were quite a few slaves who continued to practice Islam in America. Their stories have not been widely known, but are now being published.
Perhaps your question should be rephrased as to why they were so little known all this time, until researchers recently dug up the records.
Here’s some further reading:
http://www.islam101.com/history/muslim_us_hist.html
http://leb.net/pipermail/lexington-net/2000-June/000448.html
reference:
African Muslims in antebellum America: a sourcebook. Edited by Allan D. Austin. New York: Garland Pub., 1984.
My WAG would be that most slaves were not islamic, but I’m not an expert in the period.
I would suspect that more tribal religions would be followed by those captured and sold into slavery.
The ‘islam101’ link ishmintingas provides says that 30% of slaves were Muslim, but I don’t know how much weight to provide to that page, as it seems heavily biased and I am not buying all of their assertions on their timeline.
If 30% is an upper limit, then that leaves 70% who would be members of other faiths. (see look, I can subtract!)
Islam was much more prevalent in North Africa than in the Western part.
While it did stretch to parts of West Africa, it wasn’t of sufficient popularity to justify the term ‘Muslim West Africa’.
Most of the local religions in the area at that time were local tribal traditions.
Since parts of West Africa, including Senegal, Gambia (remember Kunta Kinte?), and Northern Nigeria, had Muslim majorities, and other parts such as Sierra Leone and Ghana had substantial Muslim minorites, this is probably enough to justify the 30% Muslim estimate.
Africans in Brazil not only had their candomblé and macumba religions, they also kept a thriving Islamic culture going until at least the end of the 19th century. I have seen facsimiles of Arabic manuscripts written by Islamic scholars in Brazil. There must have been something about the Brazilian environment that allowed the slaves to keep their African traditions alive. By contrast, in the United States (outside of French-ruled New Orleans), the slaves had their African culture suppressed as much as possible. The Anglo-Saxon temperament was more intolerant of African culture than was the Latin.
So much of early Islamic history in the United States has remained unknown. When General Sherman was burning Atlanta, he torched the library of the University of Georgia. The librarian pleaded with the Union soldiers to spare the library, but they told him he could save only one book. The book he chose to save was the Koran. It’s still kept by the University of Georgia library.
Have you seen the film Daughters of the Dust? It’s about ex-slaves and their descendants on the Sea Islands of Georgia circa 1900. One of the characters is a Muslim who opens the film by singing out the Islamic call to prayer in the dawn twilight. He is opposed by one of the Christian ladies who considers his Islam a primitive throwback to African times. In this way the film suggests the gradual dying out of Islam among the descendants of slaves.
The larger problem is that the “official” recorders of history have overlooked the poor, the downtrodden, the marginalized, especially black folk. To uncover and recover the full history of African-Americans has been a very difficult task.
Bob Marley sang,
"Half the story has never been told."
[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by ishmintingas *
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When General Sherman was burning Atlanta, he torched the library of the University of Georgia. The librarian pleaded with the Union soldiers to spare the library, but they told him he could save only one book. The book he chose to save was the Koran. It’s still kept by the University of Georgia library…
sorry bubba,but you mean, I think , the library of Georgia State, as UGA is located here in Athens, some 65 m. from Atlanta (thank G*D). The closest that Sherman got to here was ,I belive, Madison GA. about 45 m. down the road.
As to the existence of Islam in the Americas, I would urge you to read about the Melungeon peoples here in the S.E.They are one of the Souths’“little races” and alegedly, decended from Islamic forebearers (among others) who were in the US in very early colonial times, and of European or North African origin.
See also:The Blurred Racial Lines of Famous Families http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/secret/famous/vansallees.html for info on Jackie O’s non-white Islamic pirate ansestors
You have to remeber that the middle passage was an absolutly brutal introduction to the Americas; most slaves were transported from the African interior to the coast, then shipped to the sugar islands for 5-6 years of brutal labor. If they survived that (and many din’t–sugar island labor practices make American slavery look practically benign by comparison) they were sold on to the Americas. (5-6 years of sugar island labor was all anyone could take. At this point they were considered too broken down to be worth keeping in the islands. The process was called “seasoning”). At every point in this process slaves were mixed in with other groups. Africa is lingusitically diverse, to put it mildly, so it was not unusual that a slave would not speak the same language as any of his compatriots, and that as soon as he started to establish a level of mutual comprehension, he would be moved on to a new group. This extends to the children of a slave. They had very little contact with their parents, and in many cases first generation American-born slaves may not have shared a language with thier elders. It is no mystery that in circumstances like these much cultural memory was lost. The remarkable thing is the way that such a rich vibrant slave culture that incorperates European, African, and Native American elements and combines them with the new cultural experience of slavery did arise as soon as a common language was established.