Davidson College Archives, Davidson, North Carolina

Omar ibn Said was born in northern Senegal around 1770. He was a Qur'anic teacher and a trader. Captured during a war in 1807, he was among the last Africans to be "legally" deported to the United States just before it abolished the international slave trade. Said disembarked in Charleston, South Carolina, ran away, and was captured and jailed. He remained a slave in Fayetteville, North Carolina, until his death. Omar left several manuscripts in Arabic, including his autobiography, written in 1831.