Literate enslaved Muslims disproportionately shaped early American political discourse

Evidence

Setting aside the question about population size, the important point is that, whatever their number, educated Muslims had a disproportionate impact on US political discourse in the antebellum period. Since large numbers of Americans, slave or free, were still illiterate in this era, those slaves who could write attracted the attention of planters and other elites, including merchants. Some of these persons became genuine American and even trans-Atlantic celebrities. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 355

Setting aside the question about population size, the important point is that, whatever their number, educated Muslims had a disproportionate impact on US political discourse in the antebellum period. Since large numbers of Americans, slave or free, were still illiterate in this era, those slaves who could write attracted the attention of planters and other elites, including merchants. Some of these persons became genuine American and even trans-Atlantic celebrities. … Long before the United States declared its independence, for example, Job Ben Solomon (c. 1701–c. 1773) became a figure of renown on both sides of the Atlantic. — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 355

Categorization

• XREF: Builds the baseline for the chapter’s later argument about how Muslim presence was alternately acknowledged, romanticized, and erased in American history. — connects to: The first significant US Muslim population arrived via the slave trade
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Carl W. Ernst, Islamophobia in America_ The Anatomy of…, 355