Author Description

Looking at the Muslim world in the context of American ideas about freedom and slavery, Robert Allison traces the image of Islam in the American mind in the early years of the republic. Islam as a symbol had a particular resonance in the U.S. as the country constructed its ideology and system of republican government. Allison begins the story with Americans' first contacts with the Muslim world in the Barbary state of North Africa. In 1785 Algiers seized two American merchant vessels, and by 1815 some six hundred Americans would be held captive in the Muslim world. This provoked a debate in the U.S. forcing American diplomats in Europe, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson, to take action. Allison examines the responsibiltiy the U.S. government felt it had to its citizens, the role private citizens had in directing the U.S.'s international policy, and what captivity meant to the captives as well as to their compatriots at home. The American war with Tripoli ended with Americans believing they had overcome the menace of despotism and freed themselves from the fate of other nations. With this came a new sense of national purpose which manifested itself in paintings, poetry, drama, and politics. Allison examines the literature and histories and considers Americans' visions of Muhammed, as well as the differences in ideas of political power, gender relations, and slavery.