James Riley was born inMiddletown, Connecticut on October 27, 1777.[2] At age 15, he began serving as a cabin boy on a trading vessel in the West Indies. By age 20 he had become a ship captain.[3]
He married Phebe Miller in January 1802, and they had five children.[3]
Riley led his crew through theSahara Desert, after they were shipwrecked off the coast of contemporaryWestern Sahara in August 1815, and wrote a memoir about their ordeal. This true story describes how they came to be shipwrecked and their travails in the Sahara. The book, published in 1817 and originally titledAuthentic Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig 'Commerce' by the 'Late Master and Supercargo' James Riley, is modernly republished asSufferings in Africa.[4]
He died March 13, 1840, on his vessel the BrigWilliam Tell which he was sailing from New York to "St. Thomas in the Caribbean"[a][5] "of disease caused by unparalleled suffering more than twenty years previous during his shipwreck and captivity on the desert of Sahara".[3][6]
In 1851, eleven years after Riley's death at sea, the publishing firm of G. Brewster issued the bookSequel to Riley's Narrative: Being a Sketch of Interesting Incidents in the Life, Voyages and Travels of Capt. James Riley[...].[7]
Abraham Lincoln, who later became president of the United States, listedSufferings in Africa as one of the three most influential works that shaped his political ideology, particularly his views on slavery. The others were theBible andThe Pilgrim's Progress (1678).[9]
Maislish, David (2005).White Slave: Based on the Journal of James Riley; Wrecked with His Crew Off the Coast of Africa, Enslaved and Seeking Redemption in the Desert (First ed.). Pen Press.ISBN978-1-904754-98-5. Based on the original account, rewritten for modern readers; with additional explanatory material.
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