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Even before the United States was founded, tens of thousands of Muslims were already present, captured in West Africa and brought to colonial America in chains. Host Asma Khalid (NPR’s White House correspondent and ABC News contributor) tells the surprising story of one of these people, a Muslim man named Mamadou Yarrow, who, after 45 years of enslavement, negotiated his way to freedom, bought a house in Georgetown, and had his portrait painted by the famous Revolutionary War artist Charles Willson Peale. Through Yarrow’s story, Asma reveals the little-known story of America’s first Muslims, whose labor helped build the economic foundations of the early United States.
Even before the United States was founded, tens of thousands of Muslims were already present, captured in West Africa and brought to colonial America in chains. Host Asma Khalid (NPR’s White House correspondent and ABC News contributor) tells the surprising story of one of these people, a Muslim man named Mamadou Yarrow, who, after 45 years of enslavement, negotiated his way to freedom, bought a house in Georgetown, and had his portrait painted by the famous Revolutionary War artist Charles Willson Peale. Through Yarrow’s story, Asma reveals the little-known story of America’s first Muslims, whose labor helped build the economic foundations of the early United States.