Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution

!1: Now is the time Patriot Pirates: The Privateer War for Freedom and Fortune in the American Revolution Order Today!

Nice Design by :

Over All Rating Reviews :

Great Deal :
$3.25
Date Created :
Oct 11, 2010 09:30:32

They were legalized pirates empowered by the Continental Congress to raid and plunder, at their own considerable risk, as much enemy trade as they could successfully haul back to America’s shores; they played a central role in American’s struggle for independence and later turned their seafaring talents to the slave trade; embodying the conflict between enterprise and morality central to the American psyche.

In Patriot Pirates, Robert H. Patton, grandson of the battlefield genius of World War II, writes that during America’s Revolutionary War, what began in 1775 as a New England fad--converting civilian vessels to fast-sailing warships, and defying the Royal Navy’s overwhelming firepower to snatch its merchant shipping--became a massive seaborne insurgency that ravaged the British economy and helped to win America’s independence. More than two thousand privately owned warships were commissioned by Congress to prey on enemy transports, seize them by force, and sell the cargoes for prize money to be divided among the privateer’s officers, crewmen, and owners.

Patton writes how privateering engaged all levels of Revolutionary life, from the dockyards to the assembly halls; how it gave rise to an often cutthroat network of agents who sold captured goods and sparked wild speculation in purchased shares in privateer ventures, enabling sailors to make more money in a month than they might otherwise earn in a year.

As one naval historian has observed, “The great battles of the American Revolution were fought on land, but independence was won at sea.”

Benjamin Franklin, then serving at his diplomatic post in Paris, secretly encouraged the sale of captured goods in France, a calculated violation of neutrality agreements between France and Britain, in the hopes that the two countries would come to blows and help take the pressure off American fighters.

Patton writes about those whose aggressive speculation in privateering promoted the war effort: Robert Morris--a financier of the Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, member of the Continental Congress who helped to fund George Washington’s army, later tried (and acquitted) for corruption when his deals with foreign merchants and privateers came to light, and emerged from the war as one of America’s wealthiest men . . . William Bingham… John R. Livingston--scion of a well-connected New York family who made no apologies for exploiting the war for profit, calling it “a means of making my fortune.” He worried that peace would break out too soon. (“If it takes place without a proper warning,” said Livingston, “it may ruin us.”) Vast fortunes made through privateering survive to this day, among them those of the Peabodys, Cabots, and Lowell's of Massachusetts, and the Derbys and Browns of Rhode Island.

A revelation of America’s War of Independence, a sweeping tale of maritime rebel-entrepreneurs bent on personal profit as well as national freedom.

!1: Best Buy I read the book two times. The first was before I began a career in maritime security, the second after. I got different things out of the book each time, and both times it carried me away. This book is quotable and author Robert Patton has done such thorough research that he actually depicts conversations between these characters. Characters they are, some of the most colorful from the dawn of our nation, when seemingly everyone had a little rogue in him (or her). This book is dense with historical figures, events, and clashes that helped shape the America we know today. The book is thick with stories, like a fire hose jetting different stories and personalities our way in one connected flow. It is exciting and unlike any book I have ever read. Dense is a description that can be intimidating, but in connection with this book it shouldn't be. I mean to say that there is a lot going on, many things happening at once, but Robert Patton has presented it in a way that steers you along for the water ride and lets you look this way and that, choosing your loyalties as if you were really there. It's a book that you can pick up every year, shift your path with each reading, and have a fresh, enjoyable experience each time. It really is that full of fun historical strands. on Sale!

• George Washington's Secret Navy: How the American Revolution Went to Sea
• Six Frigates: The Epic History of the Founding of the U.S. Navy
• Blue Water Patriots: The American Revolution Afloat
• If By Sea: The Forging of the American Navy -From the Revolution to the War of 1812
• Benedict Arnold's Navy: The Ragtag Fleet That Lost the Battle of Lake Champlain but Won the American Revolution

Best Link : !: Catalog Asian Living Room Furniture !: Buy Contemporary Living Room Furniture !: Swimming Pool Winter Covers This Instant !: Canon Eos Rebel S Best Quality