A formerly enslaved Muslim strategically used Orientalist exoticism to secure white patronage.

Evidence

Ibrahima’s departure from American soil is an important indication of his friendliness to northern US interests, especially those associated with the administration of President John Quincy Adams. He veiled himself in the social, ethnic, religious, and class differences of a Muslim prince-covering up the fact that he had been in America for approximately three decades. His very marginality within American culture meant that he was a useful vessel for his white allies. Impressing his patrons by writing in Arabic, he could rely on his education to demonstrate the differences between him and most other slaves. Invoking a royal heritage, he set himself apart from other black people. His campaign for liberty was based not on the republican idea that all people deserved to be free, but rather on exceptionalist claims that he was robbed of rightful place in society. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 372

Categorization

• SEED: Could seed an essay on how marginalized people weaponize their exoticization as a survival strategy—agency inside the machinery of prejudice.
• XREF: The ‘useful vessel for his white allies’ line connects to the reader’s guiding question about how fear serves a function for the one who holds it—here the reverse: the feared figure serves his own ends.