An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce
Book - "An Authentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce, Wrecked on the Western Coast of Africa, in the Month of August, 1815. With an Account of the Sufferings Of Her Surviving Officers and Crew, Who Were Enslaved By the Wandering Arabs"....One of the earliest (if not the earliest) known copper engraving of a circumcism in a popular American book. Also as Riley is a slave he is last in the pecking order...1) Blacks 2) Jews...as artsians 3) Christains This edition is not found in OCLC...it may well be the 1st edition. "Hartford; Published by the Author.... James Riley was one of the most celebrated, skillful, and ill-starred American seaman of the 19th century. Riley (1777-1840) survived shipwreck and enslavement by the Arabs in Morocco in 1815, and in 1817 published this account of his and his shipmates' ordeal that went through many editions and became one of the most popular books of the 19th century. Abraham Lincoln called it one of his half dozen favorite books, and he was surely influenced by the book's description of white Americans enslaved and humiliated by black Moors, as well as by Riley's salute to the charity and benevolence of a Muslim.This is a one of the most famous accounts of shipwreck, slavery, and rescue in all of American history! It had been re-published throughout the 19th Century....
Associated People/Businesses
- Riley, James
Geography
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Subjects
Physical Location
DT189 .R573