The Influence of Riley’s Narrative upon
Abraham Lincoln
By R. GERALDMCMURTRY
Of all the books that Lincoln read during his youth there is
none more interesting and entertaining than Captain James
Riley’s Narrative of the Loss of the American Brig Commerce.
This book, although extensively read during Lincoln’s time, is
today out of print and not available to the modern reader.
Lincoln received from this book many ideas regarding slavery.
He also found the book instructive and educational.
Much has been written concerning some of the books which
Abraham Lincoln read, and their influence upon his subsequent career.l The classics, text books, and patriotic works
listed as having been read by him have received considerable
attention. Little has been written concerning the books which
do not fall under the above classification. However, some of
these forgotten volumes exerted a tremendous influence upon
his mental development. There were at best few books in
southern Indiana during Lincoln’s time there, but there is a
tradition that he read most of the books within a fifty mile
radius of his home.* Due to the fact that he spent less than a
year in school under five different schoolmasters, it is an
interesting endeavor to determine the influence of certain
books in his struggle for an education.*
Considerable interest has been shown in recent years in
the compilation of books which Lincoln read. Historians and
students have been able to make up a list of approximately
two hundred titles, either mentioned by Lincoln in his letters
and speeches or mentioned by authors in numerous Lincoln
biographies. A list of books that Lincoln read creates the principal background of his formal e d ~ c a t i o n . ~
In Lincoln’s day Riley’s Narrative was a standard work,
and is said to have been so popular in southwestern Indiana
during the period of his residence there, that it constituted
1 The outstanding authorities on the books that Lincoln read are M. L. Houser, Rufun
Rockwell Wilson, H. E. Barker, and William E. Barton.
2“Mr. Lincoln once told Leonard Swett that when he was a boy in Indiana he horrowed and read every book he could hear of for fifty miles around.” M. L. Houser,
Abraham Lincoln, Student-His Books, 11.
9 Lincoln’s five schoolmasters were Zachariah Riney, Caleb Hazel, Andrew Crawford,
James Sweeney, and Azel W. Dorsey.
4 “Lincoln Lore” number 167, published by the Lincoln National Life Foundation.
Indiana Magazine of Historv
134
an entire library in many pioneer h0mes.j The first edition
of the book was published in 1817, and, with the sale of many
other editions, over a million copies were distributed in a short
period of years.6 Probably no book published in the United
States during the first half of the nineteenth century attained
so extensive a circulation in so short a time as did the Narrati~e.~
Conclusive proof has been established that Lincoln read
Riley’s Narrative because of the fact that John Locke Scripps
in his campaign biography entitled “Life of Abraham Lincoln” contains the following information concerning the books
that he read as a youth:
Abraham’s first book, after Dilworth’s Spelling-Book, was, as has
been stated, the Bible. Next to that came Aesop’s Fables, which he read
with great zest, and so often as t o commit the whole to memory. After
that he obtained a copy of Pilgrim’s Progress-a book which, perhaps,
has quickened as many dormant intellects and started into vigorous
growth the religious element of as many natures, as any other in the
English language. Then came the Life of Franklin, Weems’s Washington, and Riley’s Narrative.*
Scripps’ biography was the only one of himself that Abraham
Lincoln ever authorized, revised, and endorsed. He insisted
that every statement, however unimportant, should be acc ~ r a t e .Mr.
~ Scripps submitted the manuscript to Lincoln before its publication, and Lincoln himself approved the statement that one of the books read by him during his youth was
Riley’s Narrative.
The identical copy that Lincoln read is not extant, and the
impriat of this particular book is not known.1° It is assumed
that Lincoln read the Narrative while a youth in Indiana.
Due to the proximity of southern Indiana to Kentucky it is
Houser, Lincoln, S t u d e n G H i s Books, 13.
W. Willshire Riley, Sequel to Riley’s Narrative (1851). 434. That the Narrative by
Captain Riley, of which this book was a “Sequel” or a continuation, had been read by
more than a million now living in these United States, was the claim of the author, son
of the Captain. Ihid., iv.
‘After his (Riley’s) escape the Narrative was prepared from his journals and log
books, by Anthony Bleecker (New York, 1816) and was reprinted in England obtaining
a wide circulation in both countries, though it was supposed to he fiction until others of
the crew arrived to corroborate the story. Another survivor of the shipwreck, Archibald
Rohbins, also published a narrative (Hartford, 1842). Appleton’s Cyclopaedia of Amorican Biograpfiy, Vol. V, 266-256.
*John L. Scripps, L i f e of Abraham Lincoln (M. L. Houser reprint), 3.
9 Ihid., “Foreword,” V.
10 In an alphabetical list of authors of books Lincoln studied, compiled by Esther
Cowles Cushman, the custodian of the Lincoln collection at Brown University, it 18 indieated that Lincoln’s copy of the Narrative is not known to be extant. M. L. Houser,
Lincoln, Student-His Books, 81.
6
6
McMurtry : Influence of Riley’s Narrative
135
thought that the majority of the books in this newly settled
territory were brought from Kentucky. At the beginning of
the Nineteenth Century, Kentucky was the cultural background of the territory west of the Alleghenies, with Lexington as its center. There is a slight probability that Lincoln’s
copy of the Narrative may have borne a Lexington, Kentucky,
imprint of the 1823 edition.ll
This book is said to have made a striking and permanent
impression on the minds of the early American youths who
read it, and i t is easy to believe that: the youthfiSil’-Encoln
found it both interesting and entertaining.12 The modern
reader would likely find the book interesting, due to its quaint
style, if he should have the patience to peruse its very fine
print. The Narrative undoubtedly left a n indelible impression
on Lincoln’s mind in regard to race superiority and the moral
wrongs of ~1avery.l~
The unusually interesting title page of Riley’s Narrative
in- short gives a brief synopsis of the book:
An Authentic Narrative Of The Loss Of The American Brig Commerce Wrecked On The Western Coast of Africa I n The Month Of August
1815 With An Account Of The Sufferings Of Her Surviving Officers And
Crew Who Were Enslaved By The Wandering Arabs Of The Great Afzcan Desert Or Zahahrah And Observations, Historical, Geographical,
Made During The Travels Of The Author, While A Slave To The Arabs,
And In The Empire Of Morocco By James Riley Late Master And Supercargo Illustrated and Embellished With Eight Engravings Lexington,
Kentucky Published For The Author William Gibbes Hunt Printer 182314
The Lincoln National Life Foundation has in its collection a copy of Riley’s Narrative, bearing the Lexington, Kentucky, imprint of 1823. This copy was purchased in
Bardstown, Kentucky, only twenty miles from Lincoln’s Knob Creek home.
In the year 1818 Captain Riley journeyed through the western states on horseback,
taking a route through Pennsylvania to Pittsburgh down the Ohio to Maysville, and then
to Lexington in Keqtucky. At Lexington Riley was hospitably received and elegantly
entertained by the Hon. Henry Clay, Col. James Morrison, and Mr. Holly, president of
Transylvania University, Dr. Preston, W. Brown, Cabot Breckinridge, Esq., and other
distinguished citizens.
The interest of the citizens of Lexington in the adventures of Captain Riley after
his visit probably induced a Lexington book dealer to order copies of his book with a
Lexington imprint published for sale in that city.
12 “Many a youth received an onward impulse in his literary career from that work
alone. Many a man, now high in station, can date the creation of an ardent thirst for
reading and knowledge from his perusal when young of that work.” W. Willshire Riley,
Sequel to Riley’s Narrative, page V.
1s “This
(Riley’s Narrative) must have greatly impressed Lincoln, and probably
was the basis of one of his arguments relating to race superiority.” Louis A. Warren,
The Slavery Atmosphere of Lincoln’s Yozlth, part 111.
14111 January, 1828, the Narrative was revised, and the life of the author continued. The title pages of the different editions a r e not identical. In a n edition published
as late as 1847 the word “desert” throughout the book and on the title page is spelled
“Desart.”
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Indiana Magazine of History
From this outline, it is easy to see that such a narrative
would appeal to the American pioneer. Africa was a continent of which they knew little, and the Arabs, no doubt, proved
to be a topic of never-ending conversation among those who
read the book because of their few contacts with the outside
w0r1d.I~
Captain James Riley gives a true account in his book of
his adventures, enslavement, and travels in Africa. The Narrative begins with the wrecking of the brig Commerce in
August 1815 on the western coast of Africa. The crew with
all the officers were seized by a company of nomadic Moroccan
Arabs, who stripped them of their clothing and carried them
into the interior of the “Desert of Zahahrah.” From this same
continent American and English ships were bringing black
slaves to America. This reversal of the process of enslaving
men must have brought to the minds of many white men the
ignominy of being a slave.
The interesting but sordid account of miserable sufferings
while on the desert are described, and Captain Riley very
vividly relates how he and his unfortunate companions were
sold as slaves to Arab merchants. The book is filled with antislavery sentiment, not from the political but the moral side of
the question. It is likely that Lincoln was especially impressed
with the paragraph which describes the slave market as follows :
They next found fault with my shins, which had been very sore and
they examined every bone to see if all was right in its place, with the
same circumspection that a jockey would use who was about buying a
horse.16
During Lincoln’s residence in Indiana, at the age of nineteen,
he made a trip to New Orleans and while there he saw the
slave markets. It is not known whether he read Riley’s Narrative before or after his first New Orleans trip, but it is
likely that the wrongs of Aryan slavery contrasted with Negro
slavery were brought vividly to his mind after reading the
book.
This true anti-slavery sentiment set forth by Riley was
not propaganda, because his book was written before slavery
l s A biography in Arabic of Abraham Lincoln was published in Constantinople in
1888.
Captain James Riley, Narrative of the Loas of the American Brig Commerce,
1847 Edition, 64.
Mci’Murtry : Influence o f Riley’s Narrative
137
had reached its critical aspect in American politics. This
story undoubtedly convinced Lincoln of the unmistakable
wrong of one man enslaving another. The environment of Lincoln’s life had always been anti-slavery. The community in
which he was born in Kentucky staged the most outstanding
controversy over slavery in American h i ~ t 0 r y . l ~When the
Lincolns moved to Indiana the anti-slavery atmosphere continued to be ever present in Lincoln’s life. No doubt on many
occasions Lincoln listened to slavery arguments, but it is likely
that the deciding force which caused him to form definite conclusions regarding the subject, came from newspapers, periodicals, and books. Riley’s Narrative was without a doubt
one of the greatest forces in developing Lincoln’s unfavorable
reaction to slavery.
Captain Riley continued his narrative regarding his enslavement after being sold to a cruel slave master:
After some time bartering about me, I was given to an old man
whose features showed every sign of the deepest rooted malignity in his
disposition. And this is my master ? Thought I; Great God; defend me
from his cruelty.18
The slave master proved to be as cruel as Riley anticipated,
and there must have been few cases in American slavery where
the institution existed in a more severe form than in the Empire of Morocco.
Many thrilling and exciting events occurred as the Narrutive continues. In time a few members of the crew were able
to reach c i v i l i z a t i ~ n . After
~ ~ the release of Captain Riley he
traveled extensively in Africa, recording geographical observations and describing the customs, manners, and dress of the
inhabitants. It is a reasonable conclusion that his Narrative
proved especially instructive to Lincoln because of the advice
given seamen regarding the technicalities of navigation, a
phase of study which always interested him.20
”There was no community in America, west of the Alleghany Mountains, where 8
more bitter and consistent controversy had been waged over the slavery question, during
the first forty years of the nation’s existence, than within the small area comprising a
radius of fifteen miles from the home site where the birth of Abraham Lincoln took
place, and within which area the three Lincoln homes were located.” Louis A. Warren,
The Slaverv Atmosphere of Lincoln‘s Youth, Part I.
*a Riley’s Narrative, 66.
l9
He (Riley) was finally ransomed, with his companion, by W. Willshire, the Britisb
Consul a t Mogadore, whom the United States government reimbursed during the presidency of James Monroe. Captain Riley returned t o the United States on March ZOth, 1816,
10 On May 22. 1849: Lincoln received patent No. 6,469 from the United States Patent
office for a device tn lift vessels over shoals with the use of air filled buoyant chambers.
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Indiana Magazine of History
In one of the last chapters of the Narrative, Captain Riley
describes a primitive Arabian plow and the crude methods of
cultivation.21 No doubt this fact interested Lincoln who wm
mechanically minded. Probably Lincoln had an Arabian plow
in mind as contrasted with the little-improved pioneer American plow when he spoke before the Wisconsin State Fair on
September 30, 1859:
Our thanks, and something more substantial than thanks are due
every man engaged in the efforts to produce a successful steam pIow.22
When Captain Riley arrived in America he was naturally
an opponent of slavery. In concluding his book he devoted the
last few pages t o a discussion of the American slave and the
ill-effects of slavery. At this early date considerable attention
was being given t o this subject in some sections of the United
States. He had the following t o say concerning American
slavery :
Strange as it must appear t o 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 labor 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.zs
Riley was one of the first American abolitionists, and his
antislavery sentiment reached more than a million readers.
The author’s appeal for help in abolishing slavery follows :
I will exert all my remaining faculties in endeavors 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 highminded citizen in the community, and by the friends of mankind throughout the civilized world.24
Much has been written concerning slavery. During the
period of American history when i t was the paramount issue,
thousands of tracts, books, and magazines were published
either for or against the institution. The fact that Abraham
Lincoln, the world’s greatest emancipator, read Riley’s Narrative places this early book among the most important ever
published on the subject.
A Crude wood cut in the Narrative (opposite p. 204, Edition of 1847) illustrates a
primitive Arabian plow.
John G. Nicolay and John Hay, Abraham 1AncoZ.n. Complete Works. I. 576.
29 Riley’s Narrative (Edition o f 1847). 260-261.
24 Ibid.. 260.