A Cherokee alphabet, a Muslim slave and a new national culture. (Keeping Current).In 1828, President John Quincy Adams wrote in his diary about meeting with a group of Cherokee Indians to negotiate a treaty. He was impressed with an elder member of the tribe named Sequoyah, who had created an alphabet for the Cherokees' spoken language. Adams wrote that Sequoyah had rendered a great service to his people in "opening them to a new fountain of knowledge." Jill Lepore cites the diary entry in a profile of Sequoyah in her latest book, "A is for American: Letters and Other Characters in the Newly United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. ." The hook also includes profiles of six others--including a freed slave named Abd al-Rahman Abd al-Rahman. For Muslim rulers thus named, use Abd ar-Rahman. Ibrahima--who used language to help shape the nation's cultural identity. "Taken together, they bear on the most pressing issues facing the newly United States on the roller coaster ride from Revolution to Reconstruction: The need for an educated citizenry, the problem of faction in a large republic, the fear of disunion dis·un·ion n. 1. The state of being disunited; separation. 2. Lack of unity; discord. Noun 1. disunion - the termination or destruction of union , and the challenge of unifying a diverse people," she writes. After Sequoyah created the alphabet, his tribe's literacy rates rose, Lepore writes. Cherokees were "lawful and literate" people who ran schools and owned mills in the Southeast, she notes. But, by 1830, after the Indian Removal Act Indian Removal Act, in U.S. history, law signed by President Andrew Jackson in 1830 providing for the general resettlement of Native Americans to lands W of the Mississippi River. From 1830 to 1840 approximately 60,000 Native Americans were forced to migrate. pushed the tribe west, Sequoyah's hopes for Cherokee sovereignty were dashed. "Perhaps in the end," Lepore writes, "Sequoyah understood his syllabary as the script of a people in exodus." The saga of Ibrahima, a Muslim enslaved Enslaved may refer to:
prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. Lepore. The son of an African chief, Ibrahima was educated in African Islamic centers before he was captured and sold to a British slave ship in 1788. He toiled for years as a slave in the U.S., finally proving his identity by showing he could write in Arabic. In 1828, Ibrahima secured his freedom after attracting the attention of President Adams. "By learning to read and write, a slave gained intellectual independence and access to ideas that would encourage his escape from slavery," Lepore writes. "A is for American" is published by Knopf in New York City New York City: see New York, city. New York City City (pop., 2000: 8,008,278), southeastern New York, at the mouth of the Hudson River. The largest city in the U.S. . |
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion