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History
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English (U.S.)
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Merchant Seamen in the Politics of Revolutionary America

Essay Instructions:

1. Why does Lemisch disagree with Samuel Eliot Morison's characterization that the typical merchant seaman "was a clean young farm-boy on the make" (p. 374)? Why does Lemisch instead characterize merchant seamen as "fugitives and floaters," "outcasts," "dissenters from the American mood," and "rebels" (p. 377)?
2. Why were merchant seamen "treated so much like a child, a servant, and a slave" by their employers and colonial authorities (p. 380) ? What was the reality of the employment and legal statuses of merchant seamen in the 1700s?
3. What was "impressment" (p. 381)? Why did seamen, merchants, and American colonists in general "share a common grievance" against impressment? How did the use of impressment by the British Navy fuel major protests in Boston and other colonial port cities in the 1740s-60s? How did opposition to impressment factor into the Declaration of Independence and the American Revolution?

Essay Sample Content Preview:

Jack Tar in the Streets: Merchant Seamen in the Politics of Revolutionary America
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‘Merchant Seamen in the Politics of Revolutionary America’
The merchant ships were believed to be places where offenders sort refuge or business to run away from the law. Bail jumpers, thieves, murderers, and deserted soldiers always sort refuge there. Others were there because they were impressed or tricked. It was a better place for fugitives despite being a place of bad happenings (Lemisch, 1968). Storms, sicknesses, and deaths were common; many merchants died young. Greedy employers oppressed employees, withheld wages and sunk them into bankruptcy. A seaman enriching was impossible, and most died poor. No good came out of the sea. It was not a place for an adventure-seeking man.
Seamen were enslaved and dependent on their masters through well-orchestrated and structured laws. These laws were meant to protect the seamen but, in the real sense, benefited the master. These l...
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