Yarrow Mamout was an African-American freedman of Guinean origin. Born into the Fula people in around 1736, Mamout was raised as a Muslim and learned to read and write in Arabic as well as his native Fula language. Captured and enslaved in 1752, he was brought to Maryland on the slave ship Elijah and was sold to Samuel Beall, a plantation owner in Takoma Park, Maryland. Mamout was enslaved there for 44 years, being manumitted when Beall died in 1796; he immediately purchased and freed his 7-year-old son, Aquilla. Mamout then became a successful businessman. He remained a devout Muslim, refusing to eat pork or drink alcohol and praying regularly. This 1819 portrait of Mamout was created by painter Charles Willson Peale and is now in the Philadelphia Art Museum.

Credit: Charles Willson Peale