Yarrow Mamout
Yarrow Mamout was a formerly enslaved African entrepreneur, and later property owner in Georgetown, Washington, DC. Mamout was one of a few black slave owners, and has also been described as a brickmaker, a jack of all trades, a charcoal maker, a ship loader, and a basket weaver.Background
Mamout was enslaved and taken to Annapolis from Guinea in 1752. He was originally from West Africa of the Fulani people and spoke the Fula language and rudimentary English. Because he could read and write in Arabic and could also write his name in English, historians believe he came from a wealthy Muslim family.
Samuel Beall and his son kept him in slavery. Beall owned a plantation in Takoma Park.
After 44 years of being slave, Mamout gained freedom at the age of 60.
He made enough money to purchase 3324 Dent Place NW in Washington in the early 1800s and was a financier who lent funds to merchants. He also owned stock in the Columbia Bank of Georgetown.
There are two known portraits of Mamout, painted by James Alexander Simpson and Charles Willson Peale.
