Skeletons on the Zahara

At the end of the War of 1812, Captain James Riley and his ship the Commerce went aground on the coast of Africa, and he and his shipmates were captured as slaves. After two months, they managed to find a way out, but during that brief time they were subjected to almost unbearable abuse as they desperately tried to stay alive. Based on accounts written after the event, Dean King's narrative provides a harrowing but entirely accurate narrative of the event.