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

This was a great book. It is really nice to be able to read the real acounting.

I was surprised I'd never heard of this book, supposedly one of the books Abraham Lincoln considered influential. It is the true story of an American sea captain who is shipwrecked and taken prisoner, then enslaved, by Arabs. Through his ingenious bargaining and a leap of faith, he convinces and Arab trader to trade all of his goods for the captain and some companions from his ship. He convinces the trader to take them across the Sahara, which means not only braving heat, hunger and thirst, but fighting off would be thieves as well. The captain promises that there is a reward, that there is someone willing to pay a ransom when they get across the Sahara. The problem is, this isn't true - the Captain knows no one in the city they are headed to. The Captain and trader have made a deal that if the ransom isn't paid, the crewman will be sold as slaves and the Captain will be killed. The Captain is a linguist and learns enough Arabic to converse and to learn. He relates the tale of what happened, which is a true page turner, and the stories he hears from the Arabs. While this is an old book with a few old expressions and some racial terms no longer in use, I think it's clear that the Captain is not at heart a racist; he saw people of all colors as people. While he didn't like slavery, it was the way things were, and he accepted his fate as a slave without railing against the institution itself. Rather, he documents what happens, and makes some observations. Overall, it's a very interesting read.

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.

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.