Liberty on the Waterfront

About this book

"In Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution, life aboard warships, merchantmen, and whalers, as well as the interactions of mariners and others on shore, are recreated in absorbing detail. Describing the important contributions of sailors to the resistance movement against Great Britain and their experiences during the Revolutionary War, Gilje demonstrates that, while sailors recognized the ideals of the Revolution, the idea of liberty that they practiced was far more individual in nature - often expressed through hard drinking and womanizing or through the ability to join a ship of their choice. Gilje continues the story into the post-revolutionary world highlighted by the Quasi War with France, the confrontation with the Barbary Pirates, and the War of 1812, showing how the American Jack Tar emerged as an important symbol of the spirit of the new nation. Finally, Gilje discusses the efforts of evangelical reform to reach the waterfront and examines expressions of the ideals of the Age of Revolution as they emerged from maritime workers themselves in the form of literature, including the work of Herman Melville, James Fenimore Cooper, and Richard Henry Dana."--Jacket.