Slave owners suppressed Muslim slaves’ religion while forcing Christian conversion

Evidence

Indeed, American slave owners prohibited their Muslim slaves from practicing their religion while forcing them to convert to Christianity. American Orientalism was also manifested in literature and art. As early as 1776, Thomas Paine’s best-seller, Common Sense, situated Islam as a foil for his vision of an American Republic based on reason and liberty, not superstition and monarchy. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 516

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the book’s broader thread on how religious freedom rhetoric excluded Black Muslims, and to the ‘Complaints About Immodesty’ dynamic where rhetoric about the Other masks material control. — connects to: African Muslim slaves preserved Islam until Protestant abolitionism pulled them into Christianity; Antebellum American slavery used forced Christian conversion to define civilization and belonging