Liberty on the Waterfront: American Maritime Culture in the Age of Revolution

Dedication Page

To Ann All that is told of the sea has a fabulous sound to an inhabitant of the land, and all its products have a certain fabulous quality, as if they belonged to another planet, from sea-weed to a sailor’s yarn, or fish-story. Henry David Thoreau, Cape Cod We must come down from our heights, and leave our straight paths, for the byways and low places in life, if we would learn the truths by strong contrasts; and in hovels, in forecastles, and among our own outcasts in foreign lands, see what has been wrought upon our fellow-creatures by accident, hardship, or vice. Richard Henry Dana, Two Years Before the Mast ...