Title: A path in the mighty waters
Description: "This book tells the story of how people experienced the eighteenth-century crossing of the Atlantic Ocean, exploring the transformative journey undertaken by the thousands of Europeans who journeyed in search of a better life. Stephen Berry shows how the ships, on which passengers were contained in close quarters for months at a time, operated as compressed "frontiers," where diverse groups encountered one another and established new patterns of social organization.  As he argues that experiences aboard ship served as a profound conversion experience for travelers, both spiritually and culturally, Berry reframes the history of Atlantic migrations, giving the ocean and the ship a more prominent role in Atlantic history. The ocean was more than a backdrop for human events: it actively shaped historical experiences by furnishing a dissociative break from normal patterns of life and a formative stage in travelers' processes of collective identification"--
Subjects: Merchant ships, Social aspects, Seafaring life, Transatlantic voyages, HISTORY / Social History, Passenger accommodation, Emigration and immigration, HISTORY / United States / Colonial Period (1600-1775), HISTORY / Modern / 18th Century, History, Ocean travel, Atlantic ocean
Places: Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic Ocean Region, Ocean travel
Time periods: 18th century