Omar Ibn Said

"Muslims comprised upward of 20 percent of African slaves brought to the United States, and like Said, a number of them impressed white Southerners with their proficiency in Arabic and their desire to maintain their observance of Islam’s requirement of five daily prayers. Both of these traits humanized them in the eyes of their owners—sometimes sufficiently to lead the owners to infer they were Arabs or noble Africans deserving of better treatment than other slaves."

The above excerpt is from Saudi Aramco's article on Omar Ibn Said. I find it fascinating that in that time, the most fundamental act of a Muslim, the prayer, served to "humanize" the slave in the eyes of the slave master... A slave master who's prejudices were so great, that they saw African's as sub-humans.

I also find fascinating the connections between Omar Said and other famous African American slaves, such as Abdul-Rahman (the Guinean Prince who was made slave in America) and Lamine Kebe. The Saudi Aramco article explains their relationship as Muslims who held onto their Islamic faith through the most threatening of circumstances, often bargaining and playing an in-between game with the Christians, only to profess their Islam once more upon gaining their freedom...

"To bolster his point, Alryyes points to two Muslim slaves who won back their freedom. Born in what is now central Guinea, Ibrahim Abd ar-Rahman was repatriated after 40 years of slavery, thanks to diplomatic intervention by Morocco. When he returned to African soil in 1829, he renounced his conversion to Christianity. Similarly, in 1836 Lamine Kebe, who was a teacher in Guinea before enduring 30 years of slavery, reclaimed his Muslim roots after sailing to Liberia with the help of the American Colonization Society.

It is thanks in part to Kebe that we have Said’s words today: After Kebe received his freedom in 1834, but before his departure to Liberia, Said sent him the manuscript of his autobiography. Kebe passed it on to an abolitionist named Theodore Dwight. Since then, it has been translated three times, most recently in 2000 by Alryyes."