Robert Adams

Robert Adams (born ) was a twenty-five-old American sailor who claimed to be enslaved in North Africa for three years, from 1810 to 1814. During this time he claimed to have visited Timbuktu, which would have made him the first Westerner to reach the city, though his narrative is dubious. Upon his stated liberation, and return to Europe, Adams' story was published in two heavily edited and divergent accounts, most notably The Narrative of Robert Adams in 1816. Because his story was sanctioned by some of the most distinguished men in England, including members of government, who had a noted financial interest in Africa, his narrative(s) gained credibility despite "its most glaring absurdities." Widely cited as an example of white slavery, today both accounts are widely known to have been fabrications, lending to the dismissal of Adam's story within general history discussions and recordings. Early life Robert Adams was an American of mixed black and white ancestry. It was written that he was "born up the river of New York, where his father lived when he quitted America;" and that his mother was a Mulatto. However, there is no record of a man under either of his known aliases, or fitting his general description, in Hudson during this period. Joseph Dupuis, the British Consul in Mogador who eventually ransomed Adams, wrote of Adams' appearance: