O Sheikh Hunter I cannot write my life because I have forgotten much of my own language, as well as [↑of] the Arabic. Do not be hard upon me my brother.—To God let many thanks be paid for his great mercy & goodness.
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In the name of God, the Gracious, the Merciful.—Thanks be to God, supreme in goodness, & kindness, & grace, & who is worthy of all honor, who created all things for his service, even man’s power of action & of speech.
From Omar to Sheikh Hunter.
You asked me to write my life. I am not able to do this because I have much forgotten my own, as well as the Arabic language. Neither can I write very grammatically or according to the true idiom. And so, my brother, I beg you, in God’s name, not to chide me, for I am a man of weak eyes, & of a weak body.
My name is Omar ibn Seid, (son of Seid.)
(2)
My birth place was Fut Tûr, [↑(Fouta Toro,)] between the two rivers, (Mesopotamia in Africa?) I sought knowledge under the instruction of [↑a] Sheikh called Mohammed Seid, my own brother, & Sheikh Soleiman Kembeh, & Sheikh Gabriel Abdal. I continued my studies twenty five years, & then returned to my home where I remained six years. Then there came to our place a large army, who killed many men, & took me, & brought me to the great sea, & sold me into the hands of the Christians [↑who bound me] & sent [↑me] on board a great ship & [↑we] sailed upon the great sea a month & a half, when we came to a place called Charleston in the Christian language. There they sold me to a small, weak, & wicked man, called Johnson, a complete infidel, who had no fear of God at all. Now I am a small man; & unable to do hard work so I fled from [↑the hand of] Johnson & after a month came to a place called Fayd-il (Fayette-ville?). Here I saw some great houses (churches). On the new-moon I went into a church to pray. A lad saw me & rode off to the place of his father & informed him that he had seen a black man in the church. A man named Handah (Hunter?) & another man with him on horseback, came attended by a troop of dogs. They took me & made me go with them twelve miles to a place called Fayd-il(?) where they put me into a great house from which I could not go out. I continued in the great house (which, in the Christian language, they called jail) sixteen days & nights. One Friday the jailor came & opened the door of the house & I saw a great many men all Christians, some of whom called out to me, “what is your name? Is it Omar or Seid?” I did not understand their Christian language. A man called Bob Mumford took me [↑& led me] out of the jail, & I was very well pleased to go with them to their place. I staid at Mumford’s four days & nights, & then a man named Jim Owen, son in law of Mumford, who married his daughter Betsey, asked me if I was willing to go to a place called Bladen, (B. Co. N.C.). I said, Yes, I was willing. I went with them & have remained in the place (house?) of Jim Owen until now.
Before (after?) I came into the hand of Gen. Owen a man by the name of Mitchell came to buy me. He asked me if I were willing to go to Charleston City. I said “no, no, no, no, no, no, no, I not willing to go to Charleston. I stay in the hand of Jim Owen.”