Impressment, Naval History, and the Declaration of Independence

"He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands." Today we explore Grievance #26 in the Declaration of Independence, which protested against the Royal Navy practice of impressment, the forced conscription of sailors into naval service. Topics include the following: -a description of the life of seafarers in the 18th century -a detailed overview of the British practice of impressment -strategies for avoiding impressment both on land and at sea -reasons men chose to be sailors in the first place -the intermingling of formal naval service, piracy, privateering, and impressment -desertion rates and reasons for desertion -the strange legal status of captured American sailors who were liable to be impressed because they were still regarded as rebellious subjects rather than enemy prisoners of war, who could not be impressed -the use of impressment by the Continental Navy as well as individual State navies -impressment in the context of African American history -the generosity and empathy that sailors of all sides treated other members of the brotherhood of the sea -the British decision in 1782 to change the legal status of American sailors in 1782, treating them as foreign prisoners of war rather than British subjects who could be impressed -the ramifications of independence for American ships, merchants, and seafarers