Book chapter
African Muslim Slaves and Islam in Antebellum America
The Cambridge Companion to American Islam, pp.28-44
Cambridge University Press
2013
DOI: 10.1017/CCO9781139026161.005
Abstract
Signification, the issue of identity and naming, is the analytical key to understanding Islam in America from 1730 to 1860, and it is revealed through the interactions between the transnational self-identification of the influential West African Muslim slaves and the dominant culture's construction of hegemonic racial categories and stereotypes for people of African descent. Charles H. Long has examined the theme of signification in religious studies to refer to both the system, by which stereotypes, names, and signs were given to non-European peoples and cultures during the western exploration and conquest of the Americas that began in 1492 with Christopher Columbus, and the process by which the enslaved constructed subaltern resistance strategies in their liberation struggles against the racism of the majority community. Although African Muslim slaves were stereotyped, stigmatized, and categorized for racial exploitation in the political economy of transatlantic slavery since the 1500s, their Islamic names and religious identities undercut this signification with a powerful self-signification, providing a counterconception to the hegemony of white American Christianity that enabled these Muslims to achieve independence from the dominant race and religion in the New World. Their fascinating stories and literacy in Arabic are a central theme for understanding how these slaves utilized intellectual resistance to signify themselves as the Muslims that they wanted to be. Their survival strategies of maintaining Arabic names, identifying with the universal Muslim community, reflecting on the Qur'an, praying, writing in Arabic, fasting, and wearing what they saw as Muslim clothing provide a sharp angle of vision to evaluate the complex inner struggles of African Muslims against Christian tyranny and the dehumanization of transatlantic slavery.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- African Muslim Slaves and Islam in Antebellum America
- Creators
- Juliane Hammer - University of North Carolina, Chapel HillOmid Safi - University of North Carolina, Chapel HillRichard Brent Turner
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- The Cambridge Companion to American Islam, pp.28-44
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press; Cambridge
- DOI
- 10.1017/CCO9781139026161.005
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2013
- Academic Unit
- African American Studies; International Programs; Religious Studies
- Record Identifier
- 9984398376502771
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