Religion served as a status axis in the racial hierarchy among enslaved Africans

Evidence

In the racial hierarchy that emerged among enslaved Africans, one axis of status was religion. Early on, Muslim slaves were identified using such racial terms as ”overly tanned” and ”Moor,” giving an Arab valence to their Africanness (Turner 2003, 44). — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 193

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Connects to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ piece on how religious markers get read through racial/ethnic lenses.
• XREF: connects to: Cape settlers imported the biblical Ham myth to rationalize racial control by 1707 — David Theo Goldberg, The Threat of Race: Reflections on…, 1352; The Christian-nation quest has always served a racial hierarchy — Andrew L. Whitehead, American Idolatry, 546; Europeans saw enslaved African Muslims as semicivilized aids for Christianizing other Africans (+1 more)