He was born in Gillingham, Kent, England. William's father died when his at age 12. He apprenticed to a shipwright, and studied shipbuilding, astronomy, and navigation. He joined the Royal Navy during Anglo-Spanish War. He served in the Royal Navy under Sir Francis Drake. He became a pilot for the Barbary Company, a trading company established by Queen Elizabeth I of England.
In 1598, Adams shipped as pilot major with a five-ship fleet. The fleet was owned by a company of Rotterdam merchants (Dutch East India Company). The fleet went from the isle of Texel, North Holland to the Eastern world.
New England Emigrant Aid Company
The New England Emigrant Aid Company (est.1854), originally the Massachusetts Emigrant Aid Company, was a transportation company in Boston, Massachusetts. It was created to bring immigrants to the Kansas Territory. This was done to make sure Kansas would become a free state. The company was created by Eli Thayer, a member of the Massachusetts House of Representatives, over a month before the Kansas-Nebraska Act was passed in 1854. This act allowed the population of Kansas Territory to choose for themselves whether or not slavery would be legal. The concept was called popular sovereignty.
The company was chartered in Massachusetts and started with a capital of $5 million. Thayer's plan was to play on antislavery sentiment in the Northern United States. At the time there was a very delicate balance between slave states and free states. The Company send settlers to Kansas to buy land and build houses, shops and mills. The settlers could then sell the land at a significant profit and send the money back to Thayer and his investors. Because several investors found the idea of profiting from the antislavery cause unpleasant, the Company's model was shifted to that of a benevolent society. The name was changed to the New England Emigrant Aid Company in 1855. The Company never made a profit or made a significant impact on the population of Kansas. But, it caused Border Ruffians from nearby Missouri, where slavery was legal, to move to Kansas in order to ensure its admission to the Union as a slave state. This in turn further galvanized Free-Staters and abolitionists to act. To protect the settlers they sent, the Company secretly sent armed men and Sharps rifles to Kansas. The rifles were sent in crates marked "books" and "Bibles". This played a part in what would become Bleeding Kansas.
Gampelen
Gampelen () is a municipality in the administrative district of Seeland in the canton of Berne in Switzerland. It is not be confused with the municipality Gampel in the canton of Valais.
2012 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A
The 2012 Campeonato Brasileiro Série A (known as the Brasileirão Petrobras 2012 for sponsorship reasons) was the 56th edition of the Campeonato Brasileiro Série A, the top-level of professional football in Brazil. Corinthians come in as the defending champions having won the title in the 2011 season. On 11 November 2012, Fluminense won the title for the fourth time.
Kansas Territory
The Territory of Kansas was a territory of the United States that existed from May 30, 1854, until January 29, 1861. This was when the eastern portion of the territory was admitted to the Union as the state of Kansas.
The territory extended from the Missouri border west to the summit of the Rocky Mountains. North-south it ran from the 37th parallel north to the 40th parallel north. Much of the eastern region of what is now the State of Colorado was part of Kansas Territory. The western region of the former Kansas Territory, the Territory of Colorado, was created on February 28, 1861.
Kansas Territory was established by the Kansas–Nebraska Act. The Kansas–Nebraska Act became a law on May 30, 1854, establishing the Nebraska Territory and Kansas Territory. The Act repealed the Missouri Compromise of 1820 which marked a line of latitude to be the separation of free and slave states. The Kansas-Nebraska Act allowed the settlers of Kansas Territory to determine by popular sovereignty whether Kansas would be a free state or a slave state. The Act contained thirty-seven sections. The provisions relating to Kansas Territory formed the last eighteen sections. Some of the more notable sections were:
Within a few days after the passage of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, hundreds of Missourians (also called Border Ruffians) crossed into Kansas territory. Many selected a section of land and voted in a meeting or meetings. This was intending to appear there was a pro-slavery majority in this region. In fact, each side became a majority back and forth.
As early as June 10, 1854, the Missourians held a meeting at Salt Creek Valley, a trading post west from Fort Leavenworth, at which a "Squatter's Claim Association" was organized. In newspaper articles they said they were in favor of making Kansas a slave state "if it should require half the citizens of Missouri, musket in hand, to emigrate there, and even sacrifice their lives in accomplishing so desirable an end." In another paper they warned: "The abolitionists will probably not be interrupted if they settle north of the fortieth parallel of north latitude, but south of that line, and within Kansas Territory they need not set foot. It is decreed by the people who live adjacent that their institutions are to be established, and candor compels us to advise accordingly."
During the long debate before the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, planning had already started for emigrants from the free states to settle in the territory. The largest organization created for this purpose was the New England Emigrant Aid Company, organized by Eli Thayer. Emigration from the free states, including New England, Iowa, Ohio, and other Midwestern states, flowed into the territory beginning in 1854. These emigrants were known as Free-Staters. Because Missourians had claimed much of the land closest to the border, the Free-Staters were forced to establish settlements further into Kansas Territory. Among these were Lawrence, Topeka, and Manhattan.
Abolitionists, like Free-Staters, did not want Kansas to become a slave state. They wanted to get rid of slavery permanently in the United States. Abolitionists also believed “all men are created equal.” Unlike Free-Staters, they wanted equal rights for blacks. The official Free-State line supported the idea of excluding "all" Black people from the state of Kansas. While they didn't have slaves themselves most were prejudiced against black people believing the popular idea they were inferior. Most of the settlers seemed to want free soil for white people only. Eventually they compromised with Free-Staters to prevent slavery in Kansas.
The first territorial appointments were made in June and July 1854. The officers appointed by President Franklin Pierce. They were confirmed by the United States Senate. The first governor was Democrat Andrew Horatio Reeder. Reeder was completely in sympathy with the pro-slavery southerners. He took the oath of office in Washington, DC on July 7, 1854. He arrived in Kansas on October 7, the same year. Reeder became one of the most active land speculators in the territory. In 1855, this conflict of interest finally got him fired as governor by President Pierce.
On March 30, 1855 "Border Ruffians" from Missouri entered Kansas during the territory's first legislative election and voted in a pro-slavery Territorial Legislature. This was called the "Bogus Legislature" because of the widespread claims of election fraud. Antislavery candidates prevailed in one election district, the future Riley County.