Ten to twenty percent of enslaved Africans were Muslims.

Evidence

Enslaved African Muslims arrived on US shores in the early eighteenth century. Comprising an estimated 10 to 20 percent of enslaved persons, Muslims came mostly from West Africa where Islam had been an established religion for centuries. The religion had spread peacefully as indigenous traders, clerics, and rulers interacted with the Arabian merchants who traveled to the region frequently selling their goods. — Sahar F. Aziz, The Racial Muslim, 566

Categorization

• SHARE: Send to anyone interested in American Muslim history — the 10-20% enslaved Muslim figure and its West African origin corrects the assumption that Muslims are a recent American minority.
• CANDY: A striking and counterintuitive stat: a fifth of enslaved people brought to the Americas were Muslim, centuries before modern Muslim immigration.