Religious Diversity and Thomas Jefferson

Our third President was not a modern-day religious pluralist. His views of Islam, for example, were quite negative. However, several details regarding religious diversity stand out in Jefferson’s life. First, he was intellectually curious about Islam and owned a Qur’an. He bought this two-volume English translation of Islam’s holy text in 1765, more than a decade before he wrote the Declaration of Independence. Scholars believe he was likely interested in the sacred book because of his curiosity concerning Islamic legal theory. (Denise A. Spellberg, Thomas Jefferon’s Qur’an: Islam and the Founders (New York: Knopf, 2013), 83.)

It has been assumed through the centuries that Jefferson did not know any actual Muslims (despite using them as a category for thinking about religious freedom), and that Muslims were not living in America during his presidency.

We were wrong on both counts.

Muslims did live in the States during Jefferson’s presidency. Jefferson even received correspondence directly from two Muslims. These stories were hidden from us until recently through the nefarious workings of slavery. Enslavement obscures even history.

In 1807, Jefferson held in his hands at the White House two pieces of correspondence written in Arabic by two enslaved West African Muslims. The President could not read them; he didn’t know the language. He asked around Washington, D.C. and could find no one to help with translation. So, he sent them to a University of Pennsylvania professor (and head of the US Mint), who showed them to three men within the city. Coincidentally, the third man, an instructor of ancient languages at the university, was beginning his studies of Arabic. Samuel Brown Wylie undertook the challenge of translating the manuscripts despite his elementary knowledge of the language. He estimated it would take about a month to translate the works despite his inability to read one word.

However, I should refer to this linguist as Reverend Samuel Brown Wylie, for he was also a Presbyterian minister. So, it may comfort my current Presbyterian seminarians, who toil earnestly over Greek and Hebrew, that their Reformed forefather could not meet his self-imposed deadline. We do not think he ever translated the documents for the President.

These literate men were runaway enslaved people who repeatedly escaped and were captured as they made their way eastward on the Cumberland River. Yes, the Cumberland River that many in my state of Kentucky know as a trout fishing destination today.

Two Muslim Africans, who spoke no English but wrote Arabic, traversed a winding river in Western Kentucky in 1807, looking for freedom. It is estimated that up to 20 percent of African slaves brought to America were Muslim (Patrick Bowen, A History of Conversion to Islam in the United States: 1920-1975 (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 20). Some were literate, and at least two of these enslaved African Muslims wrote notes that ended up in the White House.

A Benediction (Or Miscellaneous Thoughts)

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