Recollections of Life on the Prison Ship Jersey publishes for the first time the complete text of Thomas Dring's handwritten manuscript, a major primary-source document, in which he describes the horrible conditions, treatment by guards, and experiences that he and others endured during captivity. The book is a plea not to forget but instead to remember the inhumanity of the captors and the sacrifices of the captives--a message that continues to resonate today. Editor David Swain has provided an introductory essay and extensive notes that contain background information and historical documentation to accompany and illuminate the original manuscript.
The miseries endured by American seamen during the Revolutionary War are documented in Captain Dring's account of his experience as a prisoner on the Jersey off the coast of Long Island. Originally published in 1829.
Between 1775 and 1783, some 200,000 Americans took up arms against the British Crown. Just over 6,800 of those men died in battle. About 25,000 became prisoners of war, most of them confined in New York City under conditions so atrocious that they perished by the thousands. Evidence suggests that at least 17,500 Americans may have died in these prisons -- more than twice the number to die on the battlefield. It was in New York, not Boston or Philadelphia, where most Americans gave their lives for the cause of independence. New York City became the jailhouse of the American Revolution because it was the principal base of the Crown's military operations. Beginning with the bumper crop of American captives taken during the 1776 invasion of New York, captured Americans were stuffed into a hastily assembled collection of public buildings, sugar houses, and prison ships. The prisoners were shockingly overcrowded and chronically underfed -- those who escaped alive told of comrades so hungry they ate their own clothes and shoes. Despite the extraordinary number of lives lost, Forgotten Patriots is the first-ever account of what took place in these hell-holes. The result is a unique perspective on the Revolutionary War as well as a sobering commentary on how Americans have remembered our struggle for independence -- and how much we have forgotten.
This is a pre-1923 historical reproduction that was curated for quality. Quality assurance was conducted on each of these books in an attempt to remove books with imperfections introduced by the digitization process. Though we have made best efforts - the books may have occasional errors that do not impede the reading experience. We believe this work is culturally important and have elected to bring the book back into print as part of our continuing commitment to the preservation of printed works worldwide.
This product contains both The Broadview Anthology of American Literature Volume A: Beginnings to 1820 and The Broadview Anthology of American Literature Volume B: 1820 to Reconstruction as a single purchase. Covering American literature from its pre-contact Indigenous beginnings through the Reconstruction period, the first two volumes of The Broadview Anthology of American Literature represent a substantial reconceiving of the canon of early American literature. Guided by the latest scholarship in American literary studies, and deeply committed to inclusiveness, social responsibility, and rigorous contextualization, the anthology balances representation of widely agreed-upon major works with an emphasis on American literature’s diversity, variety, breadth, and connections with the rest of the Americas. Highlights of Volumes A & B: Beginnings to Reconstruction • Complete texts of Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative, The Coquette, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; and Benito Cereno • In-depth, Contexts sections on such topics as “Slavery and Resistance,” “Print Culture and Popular Literature,” “Expansion, Native American Expulsion, and Manifest Destiny,” and “Gender and Sexuality” • Broader and more extensive coverage of Indigenous oral and visual literature and African American oral literature than in competing anthologies • Full author sections in the anthology are devoted to authors such as Anne Hutchinson, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Briton Hammon, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, José Maria Heredia, Black Hawk, and many others
A NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW EDITORS' CHOICE A magisterial new work that rewrites the story of America's founding The American Revolution is often portrayed as an orderly, restrained rebellion, with brave patriots defending their noble ideals against an oppressive empire. It’s a stirring narrative, and one the founders did their best to encourage after the war. But as historian Holger Hoock shows in this deeply researched and elegantly written account of America’s founding, the Revolution was not only a high-minded battle over principles, but also a profoundly violent civil war—one that shaped the nation, and the British Empire, in ways we have only begun to understand. In Scars of Independence, Hoock writes the violence back into the story of the Revolution. American Patriots persecuted and tortured Loyalists. British troops massacred enemy soldiers and raped colonial women. Prisoners were starved on disease-ridden ships and in subterranean cells. African-Americans fighting for or against independence suffered disproportionately, and Washington’s army waged a genocidal campaign against the Iroquois. In vivid, authoritative prose, Hoock’s new reckoning also examines the moral dilemmas posed by this all-pervasive violence, as the British found themselves torn between unlimited war and restraint toward fellow subjects, while the Patriots documented war crimes in an ingenious effort to unify the fledgling nation. For two centuries we have whitewashed this history of the Revolution. Scars of Independence forces a more honest appraisal, revealing the inherent tensions between moral purpose and violent tendencies in America’s past. In so doing, it offers a new origins story that is both relevant and necessary—an important reminder that forging a nation is rarely bloodless.
This compact edition offers a substantial selection of Whitman’s writing. Highlights include the full text of the 1855 Preface to Leaves of Grass, the 1855 text of the poem later titled “Song of Myself,” the complete “Live Oak, with Moss” sequence, numerous selections from the 1881 edition of Leaves of Grass, and several samples of Whitman’s early and late prose. The appendices include nineteenth-century reviews of Leaves of Grass, a selection of illustrations showing Whitman’s design choices for various editions of the book, and numerous portraits of the author. This volume is one of a number of editions that have been drawn from the pages of the acclaimed Broadview Anthology of American Literature. The series is designed to make selections from the anthology available in a format convenient for use in a wide variety of contexts; each edition features an introduction and explanatory footnotes, and is designed to meet the needs of today’s students. This edition departs from most other editions in the series in one important respect—its format. The large page size of the edition facilitates the reading of Whitman’s long lines of verse.
WINNER OF THE SAMUEL ELIOT MORISON AWARD FOR NAVAL LITERATURE • “A meticulous, adrenaline-filled account of the earliest days of the Continental Navy.”—New York Times bestselling author Laurence Bergreen America in 1775 was on the verge of revolution—or, more likely, disastrous defeat. After the bloodshed at Lexington and Concord, England’s King George sent hundreds of ships westward to bottle up American harbors and prey on American shipping. Colonists had no force to defend their coastline and waterways until John Adams of Massachusetts proposed a bold solution: The Continental Congress should raise a navy. The idea was mad. The Royal Navy was the mightiest floating arsenal in history, with a seemingly endless supply of vessels. More than a hundred of these were massive “ships of the line,” bristling with up to a hundred high-powered cannon that could level a city. The British were confident that His Majesty’s warships would quickly bring the rebellious colonials to their knees. They were wrong. Beginning with five converted merchantmen, America’s sailors became formidable warriors, matching their wits, skills, and courage against the best of the British fleet. Victories off American shores gave the patriots hope—victories led by captains such as John Barry, the fiery Irish-born giant; fearless Nicholas Biddle, who stared down an armed mutineer; and James Nicholson, the underachiever who finally redeemed himself with an inspiring display of coolness and bravery. Meanwhile, along the British coastline, daring raids by handsome, cocksure John Paul Jones and the “Dunkirk Pirate,” Gustavus Conyngham—who was captured and sentenced to hang but tunneled under his cell and escaped to fight again—sent fear throughout England. The adventures of these men and others on both sides of the struggle rival anything from Horatio Hornblower or Lucky Jack Aubrey. In the end, these rebel sailors, from the quarterdeck to the forecastle, contributed greatly to American independence. Meticulously researched and masterfully told, Give Me a Fast Ship is a rousing, epic tale of war on the high seas—and the definitive history of the American Navy during the Revolutionary War.
Guided by the latest scholarship in American literary studies, and deeply committed to inclusiveness, social responsibility, and rigorous contextualization, The Broadview Anthology of American Literature balances representation of widely agreed-upon major works with a thoroughgoing reassessment of the canon that emphasizes American literature’s diversity, variety, breadth, and connections with the rest of the Americas. This concise volume represents American literature from its pre-contact Indigenous beginnings through the Reconstruction period, offering a more streamlined alternative to the full two-volume set covering the same timespan. Highlights of Concise Volume 1: Beginnings to Reconstruction • Complete texts of Mary Rowlandson’s captivity narrative; Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave; and Benito Cereno • In-depth thematic sections on such topics as “Rebellions and Revolutions,” “Print Culture and Popular Literature,” and “Expansion, Native American Expulsion, and Manifest Destiny” • More extensive coverage of Indigenous oral and visual literature and African American oral literature than in competing anthologies • Full author sections in the anthology are devoted to authors such as Anne Hutchinson, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Briton Hammon, Jane Johnston Schoolcraft, José María Heredia, Black Hawk, and many others • Extensive online component offers well over a thousand pages of additional readings and other resources
