Enter the Press-gang

Enter the Press-gang PDF Author: Daniel James Ennis
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874137552
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

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Book Description
"Even as press-gangs roamed the London streets, eighteenth-century writers applauded, critiqued, and condemned the practice Pepys called "a great tyranny" - the means of naval recruitment by which Britain simultaneously manned her fleets and oppressed her citizens." "This book centers on literature produced in "moments of crisis" - times when Britain faced a military challenge and thus needed her Navy most. When the French gained the upper hand early in the Seven Years' War, David Garrick was moved to write "To honour we call you, not press you like slaves, / For who are so free as we sons of the waves?" This characterization of the press as benign was common in the theater, even as sailors brawled with press-gangs on London Bridge. At the same time, novelists bitterly attacked impressment policy, showing how the press weighs most heavily on the poor."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Enter the Press-gang

Enter the Press-gang PDF Author: Daniel James Ennis
Publisher: University of Delaware Press
ISBN: 9780874137552
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 228

Get Book Here

Book Description
"Even as press-gangs roamed the London streets, eighteenth-century writers applauded, critiqued, and condemned the practice Pepys called "a great tyranny" - the means of naval recruitment by which Britain simultaneously manned her fleets and oppressed her citizens." "This book centers on literature produced in "moments of crisis" - times when Britain faced a military challenge and thus needed her Navy most. When the French gained the upper hand early in the Seven Years' War, David Garrick was moved to write "To honour we call you, not press you like slaves, / For who are so free as we sons of the waves?" This characterization of the press as benign was common in the theater, even as sailors brawled with press-gangs on London Bridge. At the same time, novelists bitterly attacked impressment policy, showing how the press weighs most heavily on the poor."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

The Myth of the Press Gang

The Myth of the Press Gang PDF Author: Jeremiah Ross Dancy
Publisher: Boydell & Brewer Ltd
ISBN: 1783270039
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 229

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Book Description
Overturns the generally held view that the press gang was the main means of recruiting seamen by the British navy in the late eighteenth century. SHORTLISTED for the Society for Nautical Research's prestigious Anderson Medal. The press gang is generally regarded as the means by which the British navy solved the problem of recruiting enough seamen in the late eighteenth century. This book, however, based on extensive original research conducted primarily in a large number of ships' muster books, demonstrates that this view is false. It argues that, in fact, the overwhelming majority of seamen in the navy were there of their own free will. Taking a long view across the late eighteenth century but concentrating on the period of the French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars of 1793-1815, the book provides great detail on the sort of men that were recruited and the means by which they were recruited, and includes a number of individuals' stories. It shows how manpower was a major concern for the Admiralty; how the Admiralty put in place a range of recruitment methods including the quota system; how it worried about depleting merchant shipping of sufficient sailors; and how, although most seamen were volunteers, the press gang was resorted to, especially during the initial mobilisation at the beginning of wars and to find certain kinds of particularly skilled seamen. The book also makes comparisons with recruitment methods employed by the navies of other countries and by the British army. J. Ross Dancy is Assistant Professor of History at Sam Houston State University.

The Press Gang

The Press Gang PDF Author: Nicholas Rogers
Publisher: A&C Black
ISBN: 0826423736
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 181

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Book Description
The press gang, and its forcible recruitment of sailors to man the Royal Navy in times of war, acquired notoriety for depriving men of their liberty and carrying them away to a harsh life at sea, sometimes for years at a time. Nicholas Rogers explains exactly how the press gang worked, whom it was aimed at and how successful it was in achieving its ends. He also shows the limits to its operations and the press gang's need for cooperation from local authorities, who were by no means prepared to support it. Written by an expert in the social history of eighteenth-century Britain, it is both well-researched and highly readable.

The Evil Necessity

The Evil Necessity PDF Author: Denver Alexander Brunsman
Publisher: University of Virginia Press
ISBN: 081393351X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 615

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Book Description
A fundamental component of Britain's early success, naval impressment not only kept the Royal Navy afloat--it helped to make an empire. In total numbers, impressed seamen were second only to enslaved Africans as the largest group of forced laborers in the eighteenth century. In The Evil Necessity, Denver Brunsman describes in vivid detail the experience of impressment for Atlantic seafarers and their families. Brunsman reveals how forced service robbed approximately 250,000 mariners of their livelihoods, and, not infrequently, their lives, while also devastating Atlantic seaport communities and the loved ones who were left behind. Press gangs, consisting of a navy officer backed by sailors and occasionally local toughs, often used violence or the threat of violence to supply the skilled manpower necessary to establish and maintain British naval supremacy. Moreover, impressments helped to unite Britain and its Atlantic coastal territories in a common system of maritime defense unmatched by any other European empire. Drawing on ships' logs, merchants' papers, personal letters and diaries, as well as engravings, political texts, and sea ballads, Brunsman shows how ultimately the controversy over impressment contributed to the American Revolution and served as a leading cause of the War of 1812. Early American HistoriesWinner of the Walker Cowen Memorial Prize for an Outstanding Work of Scholarship in Eighteenth-Century Studies

Free Trade and Sailors' Rights in the War of 1812

Free Trade and Sailors' Rights in the War of 1812 PDF Author: Paul A. Gilje
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1107025087
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
Examines the slogan 'free trade and sailors rights', tracing its sources to eighteenth-century thought and Americans' experience with impressment into the British navy.

Punch

Punch PDF Author: Mark Lemon
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Caricatures and cartoons
Languages : en
Pages : 582

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Billy Waters Is Dancing

Billy Waters Is Dancing PDF Author: Mary L. Shannon
Publisher: Yale University Press
ISBN: 0300267681
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 398

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Book Description
The story of William Waters, Black street performer in Regency London, and how his huge celebrity took on a life of its own Every child in Regency London knew Billy Waters, the celebrated "King of the Beggars." Likely born into enslavement in 1770s New York, he became a Royal Navy sailor. After losing his leg in a fall from the rigging, the talented and irrepressible Waters became London's most famous street performer. His extravagantly costumed image blazed across the stage and in print to an unprecedented degree. For all his contemporary renown, Waters died destitute in 1823--but his legend would live on for decades. Mary L. Shannon's biography draws together surviving traces of Waters' life to bring us closer to the historical figure underlying them. Considering Waters' influence on the London stage and his echoing resonances in visual art, and writing by Douglass, Dickens, and Thackeray, Shannon asks us to reconsider Black presences in nineteenth-century popular culture. This is a vital attempt to recover a life from historical obscurity--and a fascinating account of what it meant to find fame in the Regency metropolis.

Brother Jonathan

Brother Jonathan PDF Author: Horatio Hastings Weld
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 704

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The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803: 1753-1765

The Parliamentary History of England, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1803: 1753-1765 PDF Author: William Cobbett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Great Britain
Languages : en
Pages : 752

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Parliamentary History of England from the Normand Conquest, in 1066 to the Year 1803

Parliamentary History of England from the Normand Conquest, in 1066 to the Year 1803 PDF Author: William Cobbett
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 756

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Book Description