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University of Florida Thesis Or Dissertation Formatting “I BEAR WITNESS”: AN AFRICAN’S QUEST FOR FAITH AND COMMUNITY IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD By JOSEPH ALAN BEATTY A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2014 © 2014 Joseph Alan Beatty 2 "Do not imagine that the negroes in any condition of servitude in these countries, are a happy and contented people: believe me, there is not a man stolen from his country, and carried into slavery, who does not feel more misery, and undergo more suffering, than I have the power or inclination to describe." R. R. Madden, 1835. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe a great deal of thanks to many people who have guided me along the way. I am grateful for funding provided the University of Florida and the Department of History through the Alumni Fellowship and various assistantships. Thanks go to my committee: Jon Sensbach, Juliana Barr, David Geggus, Susan O’Brien, and Terje Ostebo for the guidance they offered in bringing this project to a successful end. This project bears the marks of their instruction and advice. I owe special thanks also to Dr. Sheryl Kroen who helped me to find a good heading at the outset of my writing. There are innumerable librarians and archivists who have earned my respect and admiration. In particular, Richard Phillips and Paul Losch at the University of Florida Latin American Collection for maintaining a wonderful library and archives and for allowing me liberal access to their resources. Also, thanks go to the staff of the University of Florida Special Collections Library, the Georgia Historical Society, the Hargrett Room at the University of Georgia, and the University of Georgia Marine Institute at Sapelo Island. I also wish to remember the anonymous and long-forgotten British civil servants who registered, copied, and indexed mountains of obscure colonial records. Those men whose fetish for record keeping impelled them to index their files have earned my most sincere thanks. I will not speak of those who did not. On a personal note, I wish to acknowledge a few individuals for their help. Joseph Opala introduced me to the fascinating realm of the lowcountry and the Atlantic world. For this, I am deeply grateful. His professional and person guidance have been truly invaluable. I also thank Professor Otto Olsen and Corinne Olsen for their friendship and support during my years in Gainesville. 4 I have been fortunate to find myself in the company of a great cohort of graduate students in the history department. This group cultivated an environment where we shared in each other’s successes. In particular, I thank Dr. Matthew Hall for good times spent over coffee and copy editing. My parents have offered steadfast encouragement, for which I am greatly indebted. Finally, I thank my wife Melissa for her unflagging patience and support. She has been my buttress and bulwark through the years. She has cheerfully endured countless trips to archives and historical sites, scattered stacks of books, and endless ramblings about people and places long since turned to dust. She and our son, Benjamin, have been a guiding light in this journey. I cannot thank them enough. 5 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................................. 4 LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ 7 LIST OF FIGURES .......................................................................................................... 8 ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................... 10 2 “ALMOST WITHIN THE PRECINCTS OF THE MOSQUE”: ISLAM IN UPPER GUINEA .................................................................................................................. 30 3 “A VERY PRECARIOUS BUSINESS”: SLAVERY AND THE SLAVE TRADE IN UPPER GUINEA AND CARRIACOU ...................................................................... 51 4 “THE BAHAMA ISLANDS ARE AT THIS TIME RISING INTO CONSEQUENCE”: BAHAMIAN MIGRATION, COTTON, AND SLAVERY IN THE 1790S. ............................................................................................................ 90 5 “WITHOUT THE INTERVENTION OF ANY WHITE MEN”: LIFE ON SAPELO ISLAND ................................................................................................................. 127 6 “THERE IS NO STRENGTH BUT FROM ALLAH”: BILALI’S MANUSCRIPT AND OTHER ENSLAVED MUSLIMS ................................................................... 159 7 CONCLUSION ...................................................................................................... 192 APPENDIX A APPRAISAL OF JOHN BELL ESTATE................................................................. 207 B BIRTHS ON BELL PLANTATIONS ....................................................................... 213 C BILALI’S MANUSCRIPT ....................................................................................... 215 LIST OF REFERENCES ............................................................................................. 222 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH .......................................................................................... 236 6 LIST OF TABLES Table page 3-1 Ships arriving in Grenada and St. Vincent from Senegambia and Sierra Leone, 1787-1790. ............................................................................................. 68 4-1 Cotton imports to Great Britain, 1760-1799. ....................................................... 94 4-2 Regions of Origin for Slaves Entering Georgia, 1765-1775. ............................. 111 4-3 Regions of Origin for Slaves Entering South Carolina, 1760-1774. .................. 111 4-4 Slave Cargoes Arriving in the Bahamas, 1789-1800. ....................................... 113 4-5 Bell Appraisal, Births by Year. .......................................................................... 122 B-1 Bell Plantation Births by Year. .......................................................................... 213 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 3-1 Map of Upper Guinea and Futa Jalon, showing routes of trade from the interior. ............................................................................................................... 59 8 Abstract of Dissertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy “I BEAR WITNESS”: AN AFRICAN’S QUEST FOR FAITH AND COMMUNITY IN THE ATLANTIC WORLD By Joseph Alan Beatty May 2014 Chair: Jon Sensbach Major: History This dissertation examines the lived experience of slavery in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century Atlantic world by following the life of an enslaved African Muslim man named Bilali from his home in West Africa through the Caribbean and to Georgia. In looking closely at the particular experiences of one enslaved individual, this project seeks to gain insights into the structures and functions of slavery in the Americas. This approach privileges individuals’ responses to and negotiations within slavery, in contrast to studies that examine enslaved people in aggregate and that tend to obscure individual actions. Bilali wrote an Arabic manuscript during his enslavement in Georgia that describes the fundamentals of Muslim faith and practice. By examining his manuscript and the other sources on his life, this project situates Bilali both in the religious/cultural world of the Georgia lowcountry and among the cohort of other African Muslims in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America. Instead of allowing slavery to define his existence, Bilali used the social, cultural, and religious lessons of his African upbringing to shape his experiences in slavery. 9 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION On October 13, 1857, William Brown Hodgson spoke before the Ethnological Society of New York, where he addressed the group of curious scholars and benefactors about the presence of Muslims in America. “There have been several educated Mohamedan negroes imported into the United States as slaves,” he told the crowd.1 Some he characterized as “grateful,” some “indignant;” many, he said, were possessed of “intellectual and physical superiority.”2 This must have spurred some disbelief among the assembly. Hodgson urged his audience to recall some familiar cases. He reminded them of Job in Annapolis and “Prince Paul” in Mississippi—men who had become famous in their days. He mentioned Omar in North Carolina who “rejected advantageous offers to return to Africa” unlike the two other men.3 Offering an additional example, Hodgson told his audience about a man named Bilali, a Muslim who had been “the trust-worthy servant of Mr. Spalding, of Sapelo Island, Georgia.”4 This remarkable man, he said, produced “various written papers, supposed to be ritual.” With some regret, Hodgson told the curious assembly that Bilali had “died recently, at an advanced age” and had been lovingly buried “with the Koran resting on his breast.” He presented a fitting epitaph for Bilali; a brief remembrance of a long life ended. Hodgson celebrated Bilali because he “adhered to the creed, and to the precepts of the Koran,” —————— 1 William Brown Hodgson, “The Gospels, Written In The Negro Patois Of English, With Arabic
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