The Republic afloat
Subtitle: law, honor, and citizenship in maritime America
By: Matthew Taylor Raffety
Series: American beginnings, 1500-1900; American beginnings, 1500-1900
Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
Published: 2012
Place of publication: Chicago; London
Language: eng
Number of pages: 277
ISBN-13: 9780226924007; 9780226924014
Copyright date: 2012
Subjects: History; Merchant mariners; Legal status, laws; Maritime law
Description: "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"--Provided by publisher.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Law. Learning the ropes: the legal structure of labor at sea ; The education of Samuel Betts: developing a national maritime law ; Discipline but not punish: the law and labor control at sea ; "All is violence": mutiny and revolt as labor negotiation; title: Honor. Forecastle law: personal honor and the defense of custom at sea ;  "Good officers make good men": the changing meanings of honor ; On the quarterdeck; title: Citizen. Our man in Liverpool: the consular service and American citizenship ; "The very laws that preserved their liberty": seaman, citizenship and national identity ; "We are eminently a maritime people": seafarers and the American character; title: Conclusion: Jack Tar, American.