Overview

In the years before the Civil War, many Americans saw the sea as a world apart, an often violent and insular culture governed by its own definitions of honor and ruled by its own authorities. The truth, however, is that legal cases that originated at sea had a tendency to come ashore and force the national government to address questions about personal honor, dignity, the rights of labor, and the meaning and privileges of citizenship, often for the first time. By examining how and why merchant seamen and their officers came into contact with the law, Matthew Taylor Raffety exposes the complex relationship between brutal crimes committed at sea and the development of a legal consciousness within both the judiciary and among seafarers in this period. The Republic Afloat tracks how seamen conceived of themselves as individuals and how they defined their place within the United States. Of interest to historians of labor, law, maritime culture, and national identity in the early republic, Raffety’s work reveals much about the ways that merchant seamen sought to articulate the ideals of freedom and citizenship before the courts of the land—and how they helped to shape the laws of the young republic.

Full Product Details

9780226924007

Table of Contents

Reviews

Matthew Raffety carries a bright lantern from the dark hold of a deep-sea sailing ship to the federal court room and back again, casting fresh light on several of the biggest issues of American history. <br>--Marcus Rediker author of The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom

Matthew Taylor Raffety carries a bright lantern from the dark hold of a deep-sea sailing ship to the federal courtroom and back again, casting fresh light on several of the biggest issues of American history. (Marcus Rediker, author of The Amistad Rebellion: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom)

Author Information

Matthew Taylor Raffety is associate professor of history at the University of Redlands in California.

Tab Content 6

Customer Reviews

Recent Reviews

Countries Available