This week’s “Daily Journal” guest columnist is Dr. Troy Kickler, director of the North Carolina History Project.
RALEIGH — A North Carolina slave, Omar ibn Said (1770-1864), has received a lot of attention lately, as he wrote the only American slave narrative in Arabic. Although the available evidence suggests that no more than a couple hundred slaves were devout Muslims, some have claimed that anywhere from 10 percent to 30 percent of all slaves practiced Islam faithfully. Said steadfastly adhered to Islam, the story goes, “throughout his long years, along with the openness towards other ‘God fearing’ people.”
Much about Said’s life is left unsaid, however — probably because it complicates the simple and anachronistic presentation of a modern-day multiculturalism in the antebellum South.
While in Africa, Said was a devout Muslim. He gave alms, prayed five times a day, regularly attended the local mosque, and even made a pilgrimage to Mecca. In 1807, he was captured and shipped to Charleston, S.C.
Shortly after purchasing Said, his first master died. His second master was so cruel that Said absconded. A slave patrol found him praying in a country church near Fayetteville. In jail, Said wrote Arabic on the walls, and people visited the jail to see his elegant handwriting. Cumberland County Sheriff Bob Mumford introduced Said to James Owen, a former state legislator and one-term congressman. With Said’s permission, Owen purchased Said from the cruel Charleston master.
For seven years, Said practiced Islam openly. He read the Quran and observed Ramadan. Said soon expressed interest in Christianity. With curiosity, he listened to Owen’s daily Bible readings and asked for an Arabic translation of the Bible.
For a slave, Said was fortunate, and he knew that. “O ye people of North Carolina,” he wrote in his autobiography, “have you among you any two such men as Jim and John Owen? What food they eat they give me to eat. As they clothe themselves they clothe me.”
Sometime between 1819 and 1822, Said professed Christianity and joined the Presbyterian Church, where he was baptized. He missed few Sunday services. Although he denounced the slave trade and considered God to be the only sovereign, Said is reported to have encouraged missionary efforts to Africa and believed Providence had placed him in America.
The evidence suggests that Said genuinely converted to Christianity and did not, as some modern scholars claim, “steadfastly hold on to Islam.” Most scholars do not mention reports from Northern missionaries or explain Said’s written and spoken statements that reflect Christian doctrine and principles. Those who do dismiss the missionary reports, written by four people over three decades, as uninformed claims; they’ve called Said’s own statements nothing more than an insincere outward conversion.
It is unlikely, however, that Said, a house slave, fooled the entire Owen family for more than 50 years. And why would he want to? Jim Owen allowed Said to read the Quran and pray to Allah; he worked sparingly; and his Arabic literacy made him a local celebrity. He did not have to convert to placate Jim Owen.
In their evangelical fervor, to be sure, missionaries often exaggerated the success of their outreach efforts. Ralph Randolph Gurley, for one, seems to overstate Said’s religious enthusiasm. In fact, Said’s words, written in Arabic, reinforce much of what the whites described.
Omar ibn Said is an important historical figure — not because he brings to light a hidden yet substantial number of Muslims during the antebellum era, but because an honest study of his life reveals that many mold history into what they wish it had been and use that distorted past to forge America into what they hope it to be.