Muhammad Ali Said Veteran of the American Civil War

2017.02.26 Muhammad Ali Sa'id was born in West Africa, the son of a leading general in the African state of Borno. Enslaved as a teenager and taken across the Sahara in the early 1850s, he eventually found himself in North America, a free man. In North America he enjoyed a distinguished military career fighting for The Union in the US Civil War. This lecture explores the unique story of Ali Sa'id and provides a framework for the discussion of topics such as: the jihad movement in West Africa, slavery across the Sahara to the Ottoman Empire, and the pilgrimage to Mecca. Speaker Paul Lovejoy Distinguished Research Professor; Canada Research Chair in African Diaspora History, York University