HYBRID EVENT
This panel will explore the Atlantic maritime economy in the late 18th century. Using the privateer base of New London, Connecticut, as a model, Ken Banks’s paper articulates the myriad ways in which privateering enterprise united and economically supported American maritime communities during the depths of the Revolution. Julia Mansfield’s paper explores the explosion of yellow fever in the West Indies during the Anglo-French wars of the 1790s. Disease mortality contributed to manpower shortages in the British navy and aggressive impressment abroad to address the shortfall of sailors. Commanders impressed from British and foreign merchant ships even resorting to illegal impressment of foreigners. Simultaneously, Americans shippers were expanding their presence in the West Indies and competing for maritime labor. This competition increased a risk of impressment for American seamen. Early American scholars know yellow fever as a scourge of mainland ports, but a full accounting of its impact requires looking out to sea.
Join the conversation at the Pauline Maier Early American History Seminar.
Seminars bring together a diverse group of scholars and interested members of the public to workshop a pre-circulated paper.
Purchasing the $40 seminar subscription gives you advance access to the seminar papers of all seven seminar series for the current academic year. Subscribe at www.masshist.org/research/seminars. Subscribers for the current year may login to view currently available essays.
The in-person reception starts at 4:30 PM and the seminar will begin at 5:00 PM.
The virtual seminar begins at 5:00 PM and will be hosted on the video conference platform, Zoom. Registrants will receive a confirmation message with attendance information.
By registering you are agreeing to abide by the MHS Visitor Code of Conduct.
Event venue
Massachusetts Historical Society, 1154 Boylston St, Boston, MA 02215, United States
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