Just how literate were the slaves of the Americas?

[Supper]

The only evidence I have is anecdotal unfortunately- Mostly West African muslim who were versed in quarnic arabic. There's not as far as a know a precise figure on how many African slaves were literate on coming to america.

Also depends on whether you consider the use of talking drums as a form of literacy, which in my opinion is a VERY underrated technological innovation on the part of many SSAs societies.

Or the use of basic symbols and mathematical formulas in Ifa divination system of the Yoruba.


^^^^But, then again Yoruba weren't as well represented in the US as compared to the Caribbean and South America.

It kind of depends on how expansive of a definition you want use to denote 'literacy'.

 

[Bawon Samedi]

The only evidence I have is anecdotal unfortunately- Mostly West African muslim who were versed in quarnic arabic. There's not as far as a know a precise figure on how many African slaves were literate on coming to america.

Also depends on whether you consider the use of talking drums as a form of literacy, which in my opinion is a VERY underrated technological innovation on the part of many SSAs societies.

Or the use of basic symbols and mathematical formulas in Ifa divination system of the Yoruba.


^^^^But, then again Yoruba weren't as well represented in the US as compared to the Caribbean and South America.

It kind of depends on how expansive of a definition you want use to denote 'literacy'.

I did not know the Yoruba were not as well represented in the US.

 

[IllmaticDelta]

Fulanis conquered the Hausas and brought islam to them and enslaved some under the Sokoto Caliphate, they did the same to some Yorubas in the northern part of Yorubaland but were met with fierce resistance which led to some being traded as slaves. I doubt that Fulanis and Hausas were sent through the Atlantic Slave Trade since they converted to Islam. Fulanis and Hausas lack the skills to work the fields of plantations because they stayed in mostly grassland and deserts. It was Angolans, Mozambicans and Yorubas that were primarily sent in large number to Brazil by the Portuguese.

brazil did have muslims....infact, they had the most muslims in raw numbers while the USA had the most muslims in proportion.

Slave Rebellion in Brazil: The Muslim Uprising of 1835 in Bahia by João José Reis (1993)

 

[IllmaticDelta]

I did not know the Yoruba were not as well represented in the US.

yeah, I said it before that the Yoruba input in Aframs is very low

 

[xoxodede]

7 - 30 percent of enslaved African were Muslims. A percentage of the enslaved were practicing muslims and had two names - one known and one unknown. Their muslim name and their enslaved name.

African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles includes updated information about forty more African Muslim slaves, several Arabic manuscripts, and scholarship produced by Muslim slaves that the author has found since 1984. Allan D. Austin, a specialist in antebellum American history, analyzes the fascinating biographies of numerous West African Muslim slaves who lived in the American South between 1730 and 1860. These men and women, who were 15% of the slave population, were the first Muslims in the United States and established a rich Islamic heritage in antebellum America. African Muslims in Antebellum America: Transatlantic Stories and Spiritual Struggles. By Allan D. Austin.​

The African American Civil War Museum has a collections letters and other diaries written in Arabic from the time of the Civil War.

Bilali Mohammed was an enslaved West African on a plantation on Sapelo Island, Georgia. According to his descendant, Cornelia Bailey, in her history, God, Dr. Buzzard and The Bolito Man, Bilali was from the area of present-day Sierra Leone. He was a master cultivator of rice, a skill prized by Georgia planters.

The Bilali Muhammad Document is a handwritten, Arabic manuscript on West African Islamic law. It was written in the 19th century by Bilali Mohammet, an enslaved West African held on Sapelo Island of Georgia. The document is held at the Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library at the University of Georgia as part of the Francis Goulding papers (it is referred to as "Ben Ali Materials.")​

"Servants of Allah: African Muslims Enslaved in the Americas" by Sylviane Diouf.
Enslaved Muslims in America were a "double-minority - religious and ethnic - in the colonial world, as well as in the enslaved community." Nevertheless, they persevered as a community, and for several generations maintained their religion and traditions, in spite of the immense challenges.

"West African Muslims did not succumb to acculturation but strove hard to maintain their traditions, social values, customs, and particular identity. At the same time, paradoxically, Islam was the was the engine of upward mobility within the structure of slavery."

 

[xoxodede]

Many of the enslaved Muslims ran-away a lot and many lived as "maroons" in the swaps or woods.

Some Muslim slaves were unable to stand the testing times of hard labor and misery in the fields so they ran away. Michael A. Gomez in the article “Muslims in Early America,” he explains how the runaway slaves had ethnic Muslim traits in their names and some of them were recorded but not much research has been done in this matter. According to Gomez, “Advertisements for runaway slaves contain unique and substantial information on ethnic and cultural traits of individual slaves and are an underutilized source of data on America slavery. With regards to Muslims in early America, these advertisements occasionally provide names that are clearly Muslim but rarely identified as such. Names such as “Bullaly” (Bilali), “Mustapha,” “Sambo,” “Bocarrey” (Bubacar, from Abu Bakr), and “Mamado” (Mamadu) are regularly observed in the advertisements for runaway slaves.” Michael A. Gomez, “Muslims in Early America,” The Journal of Southern History 60, no. 4 (1994): 685.
​

 

[IllmaticDelta]

old thread but:

Hausas were sent to Brazil.

they were some in Louisiana too