Up Next
Back to Show
American Muslims: A History Revealed
How Muslims Influenced Thomas Jefferson and America’s Founders
Season 1
Episode 15
Did you know that Thomas Jefferson owned a copy of the Qur’an? That George Washington owned enslaved people who were Muslim? And that a Muslim diplomat broke his Ramadan fast in the White House in 1805? These are some of the facts that Aymann Ismail (staff writer, Slate Magazine) discovers as he explores the role that Muslims played in the imagination of America’s founding generation.
Support Provided By
23:46
Discovers how Muslim groups helped working-class Black Americans resist the confines of race.
24:45
A federal immigration file shows how early border laws shaped the Muslim experience in the U.S.
24:45
A photograph reveals the rise of Black Muslim life in northern cities during the Great Migration.
23:39
Asma Khalid travels to the American South West to tell the story of early South Asian migration.
24:45
A Lebanese homesteader recalls the building of one of the first mosques on the Great Plains.
22:24
Malika Bilal tells the story of an immigrant with a 200-page pension file detailing his experiences.
24:45
A Civil War pension file reveals the story of a Muslim man who fought for the Union.
23:19
Who was Mamadou Yarrow, and how did he make his way into this painting in his journey to freedom?
24:45
How Islam figured in debates about religious freedom and citizenship in the early Republic.
22:01
How Muslim homesteaders constructed one of the first purpose-built mosques in the country.
24:44
A 1819 portrait of a formerly enslaved man reveals the presence of Muslims at the nation’s founding.