FWD: “When few enslaved people in the United States could write, one man wrote his memoir in Arabic” - The Washington Post

Library > Community Presentations

Presenter: Laila Mokhiber

Delivered: DC on January 27, 2019

A FWD on a Washington Post article I read about Omar Ibn Said, who wrote the only known surviving slave account in Arabic.

Sources & Future References

• About this Collection | Omar Ibn Said Collection | Digital Collections | Library of Congress

• The life of Omar ben Saeed, called Morro, a Fullah Slave in Fayetteville, N.C. Owned by Governor Owen | Library of Congress

• “I Wish To Be Seen In Our Land Called Āfrikā” Ôumar B. Sayyid’s Appeal To Be Released From Slavery (1819)

• Omar Ben Saeed - Documenting the American South Podcast

• Summary of Autobiography of Omar ibn Said, Slave in North Carolina, 1831. Ed. John Franklin Jameson. From The American Historical Review, 30, No. 4. (July 1925), 787-795

• Omar Ibn Said (1770-1864) - North Carolina History

• Unique Autobiography Written in Arabic by an Enslaved Scholar Goes Online at the Library of Congress | Library of Congress

• Only Surviving Arabic Slave Narrative Written in the United States Digitized by Library of Congress | Smithsonian

Contact Info

• Email: lailamo@gmail.com

• Instagram: @lailamo

Note: All community presentations are prepared & presented by non-experts on the subject. They are sharing information in the hopes of spurring interest in that subject.

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About Afikra Community Presentations

Delivered and prepared by afikra Community members, the presentation’s goal is to showcase the presenter’s curiosity and research and share some knowledge on a ‎topic related to the Arab world’s histories and cultures. The presentation is the ‎culmination of the afikra coaching process to help identify a topic, find research, and develop the ‎presentation. afikra presentations come in two forms, a long question-driven afikra Feature, and a short afikra FWD with the purpose of sharing something interesting.