Synopses & Reviews
-- Describes the great events, major actors, and social effects of the American Revolution
-- Reveals previously unknown details about a joint Indian and British attack on American positions outside Montreal, Ethan Allen's imprisonment, and the treatment of smallpox
A rare participant's account of seafaring during the Revolutionary War. Christopher Prince recounts his adventures on board both British and American ships as a naval enlisted man, as an officer of privateers, and as a master of merchantmen. Prince also describes his religious conversion and its transforming effect on his postwar life as a merchant sea captain. Editor Crawford provides introductions, commentary, notes, appendixes, and a glossary.
Synopsis
-- Adds to our knowledge of the great events, major actors, and social effects of the American Revolution
-- Complements existing scholarship about the hardships of a seafaring life and the origins of the antebellum seamen's religious movement
-- Recounts Prince's narrow escapes from death and capture, his travails as a prisoner, and his financial gains and losses as a result of the war
-- Reveals previously unknown details about a joint Indian and British attack on American positions outside Montreal, Ethan Allen's imprisonment, and the treatment of smallpox
In 1806, when retired sea captain and religious activist Christopher Prince (1751-1832) began to write his life's story, he wanted simply to leave his family a record of his experiences. Today, his autobiography survives as one of the extremely rare partcipants' accounts of seafaring during the American Revolution. As a literary work, it shares characteristics of three genres -- the war story, the captivity narrative, and the spiritual autobiography. Prince tells what it was like to grow up in a seaport town in colonial Massachusetts, why a boy would choose a seafaring life, of the hardships of fishing on the Grand Banks, and of the education of a merchant seaman. The core of the autobiography, however, constitutes Prince's adventures and exploits during the American Revolution, on board both British and American ships, as a naval enlisted man, as an officer of privateers, and as a master of merchantmen. It ends with an account of his religious conversion and its transforming effect on his life as a merchant sea captain after American Independence had been secured. The book is served well by the editor, Michael J.Crawford, who provides introductions and contexts, commentary, notes, appendixes, and a glossary. Prince and Crawford together make an important contribution to American naval and maritime history.