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On 2 July 1812, Captain David Porter raised a banner on the USS Essex proclaiming 'a free trade and sailors rights', thus creating a political slogan that explained the War of 1812. Free trade demanded the protection of American commerce, while sailors' rights insisted that the British end the impressment of seamen from American ships. Repeated for decades in Congress and in taverns, the slogan reminds us today that the second war with Great Britain was not a mistake. It was a contest for the ideals of the American Revolution bringing together both the high culture of the Enlightenment to establish a new political economy and the low culture of the common folk to assert the equality of humankind. Understanding the War of 1812 and the motto that came to explain it - free trade and sailors' rights - allows us to better comprehend the origins of the American nation.
On 2 July 1812, Captain David Porter raised a banner on the USS Essex proclaiming 'a free trade and sailors rights', thus creating a political slogan that explained the War of 1812. Free trade demanded the protection of American commerce, while sailors' rights insisted that the British end the impressment of seamen from American ships. Repeated for decades in Congress and in taverns, the slogan reminds us today that the second war with Great Britain was not a mistake. It was a contest for the ideals of the American Revolution bringing together both the high culture of the Enlightenment to establish a new political economy and the low culture of the common folk to assert the equality of humankind. Understanding the War of 1812 and the motto that came to explain it - free trade and sailors' rights - allows us to better comprehend the origins of the American nation.
Part I. Free Trade: 1. The Enlightenment and defining free trade; 2. The revolutionary experience; 3. The new diplomacy; 4. Legacy; Part II. Sailors' Rights: 5. Anglo-American traditions; 6. The rise of Jack Tar; 7. Impressment; 8. Citizenship; 9. The Hermione and the rights of man; Part III. Origins: 10. Empire of liberty; 11. Indians in the way; 12. Contested commerce; 13. The ordeal of Jack Tar; 14. Honor; Part IV. War: 15. The odyssey of the Essex; 16. The language of combat; 17. Politics of war; 18. Pursuit of peace; 19. Dartmoor; Part V. Memory: 20. Winning the peace; 21. Remembering impressment; 22. The persistent dream; 23. Politics; 24. Popular culture; 25. Conclusion.
Examines the slogan 'free trade and sailors rights', tracing its sources to eighteenth-century thought and Americans' experience with impressment into the British navy.
Paul Gilje is a George Lynn Cross Research Professor in the Department of History at the University of Oklahoma. He holds an MA and PhD from Brown University and has held fellowships at Johns Hopkins University and Washington University, St Louis. Gilje is the author of The Road to Mobocracy: Popular Disorder in New York City, 1763–1834; Riots in America; Liberty on the Waterfront: Society and Culture of the American Maritime World in the Age of Revolution, 1750–1850; and The Making of the American Republic, 1763–1815. Liberty on the Waterfront received the 2004 Society for Historians of the Early American Republic Best Book Prize and the 2004 North American Society for Oceanic History John Lyman Book Award in the category of United States Maritime History. Professor Gilje has organized an adult civics program in the state of Oklahoma, consulted for museums, edited several books and lectured widely in Europe and America. Throughout his career he has a sustained interest in how common people have been affected by the larger events of history.
'Gilje skilfully analyzes Anglo-American diplomacy over impressment
and neutral rights. Unlike most other accounts of the War of 1812,
he traces the roots of these issues back to the colonial period and
also explains how these issues fared in the aftermath of the
conflict. The major contribution to scholarship, however, is the
reconstruction of the multiple meanings of 'free trade' and the
explanation of the significance of impressment for early America's
national identity.' Reviews in History
'Gilje's book is a valuable contribution and a substantial
achievement.' Matthew Taylor Raffety, William and Mary
Quarterly
'… one of the best of many books recently published to mark the
bicentennial of the War of 1812.' Brian Rouleau, Register of the
Kentucky Historical Society
'… I would recommend the book to anyone interested in the maritime
and ideological dimensions of the war as well as anyone interested
in connections between the colonial and early national periods in
US history.' Christopher P. Magra, The New England Quarterly
'This work deserves a central place on bookshelves devoted to the
nation's second war with Great Britain. All students interested in
the origins of the War of 1812 and its aftermath will profit from
it.' Donald R. Hickey, The Journal of American History
'… Gilje's ambition is admirable. He has rescued the forgotten
phrase that gave meaning to America's original forgotten war.'
Denver Brunsman, Journal of Interdisciplinary History
'[Gilje] poignantly shows that, to Americans in the
postrevolutionary period, free trade and sailors' rights symbolized
the success of the American Revolution and that they therefore
interpreted their violation by Great Britain as an attack on their
democratic aspirations.' Jasper M. Trautsch,
Amerikastudien/American Studies
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