2022-08-06 - Sufferings In Africa by James Riley
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A couple of years ago, i ran across a scholarly article about the
fact that over a million European Christians were enslaved in Africa.
Why is a 16-year-old book on slavery so popular now?
White slavery @Wikipedia
In a related article, i read that white slave narratives were once a
popular genre of literature shortly before colonial times. This
piqued my interest because it represented a whole genre of books that
i had not heard of before, and the books are all old enough to be in
the public domain. I created a list of as many of these books as i
could find and then sat on the list for a couple of years.
I finally got around to selecting one of the books to read, and i
chose Sufferings In Africa by James Riley. The author was from the
US and his experience led him to be against slavery in the United
States. Abraham Lincoln read this book when he was young and it
influenced his own opinions against slavery.
Reading this book, i was not disappointed. The author comes across
as highly intelligent because he values learning from a young age, he
has a retentive memory, and he demonstrated extreme flexibility
adapting to novel circumstances and doing the needful. I also
enjoyed his descriptions of natural scenery such as the hidden
springs in the Sahara (Chapter 10) and the treacherous, narrow path
along the coastal cape cliffs between Santa Cruz (Agadir) and Mogadir
(Essaouira) (Chapter 23).
Below are excerpts from the book that i found interesting.
To The Reader
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I had no hope of ever being redeemed, unless I could make myself
understood, and I therefore took the utmost care to treasure up every
word and sentence I heard spoken by the Arabs, to reflect on their
bearing, and to find out their true meaning, by which means, in the
course of a very few days, I was enabled to comprehend the general
tenor and drift of their ordinary conversation, and to find out the
whole meaning of their signs and gestures.
While I was at Mogadore, a number of singular and interesting
transactions took place, such as do not often occur even in that
country ; and a person might reside there for many years, without
having an opportunity of witnessing a repetition of them...
Chapter 1
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I was born in the town of Middletown, in the state of Connecticut, on
the 27th of October, in the year 1777, during the war between England
and America, which terminated in 1783, with the acknowledgment by the
mother country of the freedom, sovereignty, and independence of the
thirteen United States.
[The author describes what the education system was like when he was
a child. There was no central education system. It was a very local
thing. The school was generally led by the church minister, who was
generally either a Congregationalist or a Presbyterian. The author
went to school from ages 4 to 8 and learned to spell and read. At
age of eight, out of family financial necessity, the author was put
to work. At age of fifteen, the author got tired of hard physical
labor on the land, and went to sea against the wishes of his parents.
He worked his way up in rank to chief mate. In 1808 his ship was
seized by the French. He returned home in 1809 and struggled
financially as a father of four children.]
Chapter 6
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As we surveyed the dangers that surrounded us, wave following wave,
breaking with a dreadful crash just outside of us, at every instant,
our hearts indeed failed us, and there appeared no possibility of
getting safely beyond the breakers, without a particular interference
of Providence in our favour. The particular interference of
Providence in any case I had always before doubted; but if there is a
general, there must be a particular Providence.
Chapter 10
==========
[The author describes their passage through the Sahara desert with
their new owners. At some point they enter a dry ocean bed crusted
with salt at the bottom. The bank was very steep and about four or
five hundred feet deep. They stopped at a spring hidden in a narrow
cleft of rock. The spring was about 100 feet below the surface of
the desert and 350 to 400 feet above the dry sea bed. The water
trickled into a chalk basin that held about 50 gallons. It never
overflowed, so there was no evidence of the spring from below. The
author thought it was a mystery how it had ever been discovered. I
have my own theories. Anyhow, the spring was in too narrow a cleft
for the camels to fit into. The author and his shipmates were
ordered to climb down and fill goat skins and carry them back up for
the camels to drink. The largest and thirstiest camel drank 60
gallons of water, which nearly emptied the spring. This extinct dry
ocean bed and mysterious spring capture my imagination. Probably
centuries after it had been a body of water, some hidden aquifer
still flowed in hidden places.]
Chapter 22
==========
To hear such sentiments from the mouth of a Moor, whose nation I had
been taught to consider the worst of barbarians, I confess, filled my
mind with awe and reverence, and I looked up to him as a kind of
superior being, when he added, "We are all children of the same
heavenly Father, who watches over all our actions, whether we be
Moor, or Christian, or Pagan, or of any other religion; we must
perform his will."
[He] remarked, that it was not so much the real value of a present
that was taken into consideration by the Moors, but the manner of
giving it, which laid the receiver under such an obligation as to
make him your friend for ever. This notion I was at a loss to
understand, and therefore supposed it to be some peculiarity in the
customs of these singular people.
Chapter 25
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I took them up upon the roof of the house (which was flat and
terraced with stones laid in lime cement, and smooth like a floor)
one clear evening, and then told them that I wanted to know by what
means they were enabled to find their way across the trackless
desart. Sidi Hamet immediately pointed out to me the north or polar
star, and the great bear, and told me the Arabic names of the
principal fixed stars, as well as of the planets, then visible in the
firmament, and his manner of steering and reckoning time by the means
of them. His correct observations on the stars, perfectly astonished
me: he appeared to be much better acquainted with the motions of the
heavenly bodies than I was, who had made it my study for a great many
years, and navigated to many parts of the globe by their assistance.
We went to the south, around the bottom of the great Atlas mountains,
six days' journey; then we stopped close by it, and cut wood and
burned coals for the camels, for the caravans never attempt to cross
the desart without this article: four hundred camels out of the
number were loaded with provisions and and water for the journey, and
after having rested ten days, and given the camels plenty of drink,
we went up on the desart and steered off southeasterly.
[When they ran out of food, they fed the camels charcoal, which kept
the camels alive. It caused the camels to produce milk as black as
the charcoal itself, but it was still fit for human consumption.]
Chapter 31
==========
Soon after I was seized on as a slave by the wandering Arabs of the
great Western Desart, I was struck with the simplicity of their lives
and manners, and contrasted the circumstances of their keeping
camels, living in tents, and wandering about from day to day, with
the simplicity of the lives of the old Jewish patriarchs, who also
lived in tents, had camels, and wandered about from place to place;
possessed men-servants and maid-servants--that is, they owned
slaves... When I became more acquainted with the Arabs, I observed
that the manner of salutation between strangers was very much like
that of the Jewish fathers, as recorded in Holy Writ...
Chapter 32
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I learned from Zagury, that this man was esteemed a great saint by
all the Moors; that his name was Mohammed Ilfactesba; that he taught
all pious Moors who wished it, to read in the Koran, and the
Mohammedan laws: that he generally had from one to three hundred...
students, who came from every part of the empire; that he taught all
who came, and supplied them with provisions gratis...
...the saint said he was a friend to Christians, and men of every
other religion; that we were all children of the same heavenly
Father, and ought to treat each other like brothers: he also remarked
that God was great and good, and had been very merciful to me, for
which I ought to be thankful the remainder of my life.
Chapter 33
==========
[The author passed through a swarm of locusts. His party had a
number of pack mules. The locusts cleared the road to avoid being
crushed to death. The swarming locusts came into contact with their
faces and bodies. The author protected his face with a handkerchief.]
...we were about two hours in passing this host of destroyers, which
when on the wing made a sound, as finely described in Holy Writ,"
like the rushing of horses into battle." The space covered length
for about eight miles along the road and three miles in breadth.
The largest African locust is above three inches in length, and
nearly one inch in diameter...
It is said at Mogadore, and believed by the Moors, Christians, and
Jews, that the Bereberies inhabiting the Atlas mountains, have the
power to destroy every flight of locusts that comes from the south
and from the east, and thus ward off this dreadful scourge from all
the countries north and west of this stupendous ridge, merely by
building large fires on those parts of the ridge over which the
locusts are known always to pass, and in the season when they are
likely to appear, which is at a definite period, within a certain
number of days in almost every year. The Atlas being high, and the
peaks covered with snow these insects become chilled in passing over
them, when seeing the fires, they are attracted by the glare, and
plunge into the flames. I do not know what degree of credit ought to
be attached to this opinion...
[This reminds me of the "pagan" custom of lighting bonfires on
hilltops at specific times of the year.]
Locusts are esteemed very good food by the Moors, Arabs, and Jews, in
Barbary, who catch large numbers of them in their season, and throw
them, while jumping alive, into a pan of boiling argan oil: here they
hiss and fry until their wings are burned off, and their bodies are
sufficiently cooked, when they are poured out and eaten. I have seen
many thousands cooked in this manner, and have had the curiosity to
taste them: they resemble in consistence and flavour, the yolks of
hard boiled hen's eggs.
Chapter 35
==========
I have spent my days, thus far, amidst the bustle and anxieties
incident to the life of a seaman and a merchant, and being now fully
persuaded that the real wants of human nature are very few, and
easily satisfied, I intend henceforth to remain, if it is God's will,
in my native country. I have been taught in the school of adversity
to be contented with my lot, whatever future adversities I may have
to encounter, and shall endeavour to cultivate the virtues of charity
and universal benevolence.
...and yet, strange as it must appear to the philanthropist, my
proud-spirited and free countrymen still hold a million and a half,
nearly, of the human species, in the most cruel bonds of slavery,
many of whom are kept at hard labour and smarting under the savage
lash of inhuman mercenary drivers, and in many instances enduring
besides the miseries of hunger, thirst, imprisonment, cold,
nakedness, and even tortures. This is no picture of the imagination:
for the honour of human nature I wish its likeness were indeed
nowhere to be found; but I myself have witnessed such scenes in
different parts of my own country, and the bare recollection now
chills my blood with horror. Adversity has taught me some noble
lessons: I have now learned to look with compassion on my enslaved
and oppressed fellow-creatures; I will exert all my remaining
faculties in endeavours to redeem the enslaved, and to shiver in
pieces the rod of oppression ; and I trust I shall be aided in that
holy work by every good and every pious, free, and high-minded
citizen in the community, and by the friends of mankind throughout
the civilized world.
author: Riley, James, 1777-1840
detail:
LOC: DT189 .R5
source:
tags: biography,ebook,non-fiction,slave narrative
title: Sufferings In Africa
Tags
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biography
ebook
non-fiction
slave narrative