Customer Reviews

Sufferings in Africa: The Astonishing Account of a New England Sea Captain Enslaved by North African Arabs

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We should all be grateful that his book was reissued. It is truly a remarkable account of the danger of seafaring merchants during the early 19th C. Written in the style and the variable spelling of that period, the book prompted me to search out a map of northwestern Africa so I could follow the plight of Riley and his crew. Given that this narration was one of the few books owned by the young Abe Lincoln, one can already see the seeds of the abolition movement after the slavery tables were turned (English speaking whites being enslaved by Africans). One detail not in the book is that a cousin, Justus Riley, from Weathersfield, Connecticut, owned the brig Commerce along with his partners, the Savages of Hartford. Ship insurance would have paid the owners for the loss of the ship, but not the master of the ship, in this case James Riley. It is fortunate James wrote his account as it permitted him to move to Ohio during the US western expansion. Anyone who loves the O'Brien books will love this book -- I keep hoping it will be made into a screenplay.

In the world of survival stories, this one is an outstanding classic. Captain James Riley's account of his shipwreck and subsequent enslavement by nomadic Arabs will amaze you beyond belief. I cannot began to imagine how anyone could survive under these conditions...naked, sunburned, starving, beaten and driven across the buring desert as slaves. It was encouraging to me that throughout it all, he kept his faith in God and somehow endured with the hope he would eventually be a free man once more. He also exhibited great leadership as he urged his fellow shipmates not to give up. Somehow they would make it! Written in the early 1800's this story has been an inspiration to millions over the years. It's a great addition to any library.

This is a fine entry into the literature of true adventure stories and the literature of suffering. The jacket notes indicate this volume was very popular in the early 19th century and influenced a young Abraham Lincoln. I am surprised that this book does not enjoy wider fame.

After the war of 1812, Captain James Riley was employed as master and supercargo of the brig Commerce from Hartford, Connecticut. He shipped a crew of George Williams, chief mate, Aaron Savage, second mate, William Porter, Archibald Robbins, Thomas Burns and several others. He sailed for New Orleans in May 1815, passed the Bahamas and Florida Keys, (not without incident: the ship ran aground, before Riley freed her) and, in early August, reached Gibraltar. While headed for Cape de Verds, Riley ran the Commerce off course, and was shipwrecked in breakers off the Sahara.

One man was slaughtered on the beach.

Conditions for the rest were pure hell. Captain Riley and those remaining were forced to sell themselves into slavery in order to survive. The party was then divided. Some men were never seen again, and were presumed to have spent the duration of their days in privation and servitude.

Riley and four others were saved in November 1815; in late September, Riley had convinced an Arab merchant to buy himself and those companions, transport them across the desert to Mogadore, and there to ransom them to the British embassy. He tells in great detail the sufferings the men endured during their slavery and travel through the desert. Nineteen months afterwards, Archibald Robbins was ransomed as well. Subsequently, he wrote at length on his own experiences in slavery. During the 19th century, a volume including both this book and Robbins' tale became a bestseller. Today, a copy of Robbins' account is hard to come by.

The conditions endured by the infidel slaves is almost unbelievable. This book, reprinted dozens of times in its day, sold millions of copies and influenced abolitionists of Riley's time. The book was of the works that the young Abraham Lincoln read by firelight in Illinois, and strongly influenced his thinking about slavery, as did a visit to the slave market in New Orleans.

Mogadore was once a flourishing city, Riley observed, but when he became a freed man there, he observed that "superstition, fanaticism, and tyranny bear sway...[and] have swept away, with their pernicious breath, the whole wealth of its once industrious and highly favored inhabitants;--have driven the foreigner from their shores, and it seems as if the curse of Heaven had fallen on the whole land...."

--Alyssa A. Lappen

Considering that this book was written in the early 1800's and is a true story, I am totally impressed. The whole concept of slavery and how it applied to white and black people in the early 19th century in Africa before it even became an issue! Extraordinary accounting of true life at it's most extreme.

Our lives today are easy beyond compare to the lives the desert nomads lived, the Africans who enslaved the crew of the wrecked ship Commerce back in 1815. The way water was treasured to every last drop makes me feel guilty about how little thought we generally give to where our water comes from. This is an enthralling tale, one I could not stop reading until I was finished. To realize that I am reading a book that my great great grandfather may have read back in his days makes it that more special.

The author of the book, Captain James Riley, bravely wrote and acknowledged his role in his ship's disaster of wrecking off the North African coast back in 1815. This is an incredible tale of survival under the most brutal and pain-racking conditions one can imagine. The American brig, Commerce, hit a storm off the North African coast and was wrecked. The crew manages to reach the beach in their boats and collapse with exhaustion. However, the wreck and chance of plunder attracts an Arab nomad band to the scene. It is at this point that the captain and crew get a taste of the welcome they that will be met with from natives who are as merciless and unforgiving as the Sahara desert they live in.

Although they manage to avoid capture and probable execution on their first encounter with the Arab nomads, the second encounter finds them starved, hopeless, and without water for several days running. So, they are enslaved and stripped naked by their captors. Their skin sizzles and blisters horribly under the ferocious Saharan sun while they walk barefooted and bloody over the sharp, rocky desert floor for many days - each day weaker with the spark of life slowly ebbing from their eyes. Then their band encounters their personal savior, Abdallah, who is an Arab merchant crossing the Sahara along with his brother. He buys the captain and most of the crew at Riley's repeated emotional entreaties, planning to sell them back to the English consul, Mr. Willshire, in far away Mogadore (for a profit, of course).

Yet despite their new master and his profit motive, their continued survival is highly tentative as starvation, thirst, fatigue, continual danger of brigands, and even Abdallah's own brother conspire to steal these forsaken, hapless captives. And even though Riley must have suffered immeasurably he still managed to sear his inconceivable experiences into his memory and learned to speak some Arabic as well. Their thirst was often so remorseless that they routinely drank camel urine and subsisted on the most meager food imaginable.

This is a remarkable true story and one which vividly portrays the unspeakable sufferings by the unprepared and unwary stranded in the deserts of North Africa. Read the book, skip the visit!

This is an engaging and entertaining adventure. This is definitely a book you should have in your library. It gives a very humanistic view of Africa and its people without resorting to stereotypes.

After seeing this story on the History Channel, I just had to have this book. Wow, it was a wonderful book. Who needs fiction when there are stories such as this? Get two to give one as a gift.

From the moment I started reading the book to the point where I finished reading , I just could not control my emotions. This book is absolutely captivating and a telling tale of the repugnant system of slavery. Slavery in any form or practised by anyone, may it be by the whites on the blacks or vice versa, is equally revulsive and cruel. In my opinion, slavery is the worst crime and cruelty that man can inflict upon his fellow beings, even worse than murder. The narrative abilities of Capt. Riley are quite extraordinary. This is the most moving tale of suffering and redemption I have ever read. When I first read the Dean King's version of this same story , I felt that was a master piece and certainly the original version with its archaic English may not be readable. Boy was I wrong !
This book is a compulsive page turner and the emotions it evokes in its readers minds cannot be simulated, as this is a first hand account and that too of a sufferer. Riley has put his heart into his writings and that cannot be reproduced in any copy. A BIG THANKS TO THE LONG RIDERS' GUILD PRESS as because of them we are able to read this classic.
It appears Abe Lincoln was so impressed by this book that he decided to abolish slavery. Thus this book was instrumental in bringing about one of the the biggest social changes in US history with far reaching effects.