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The navy was key to Britain’s dominance of both sides of the Atlantic in the eighteenth century. Upon which, the Master thereof gave Scent of them to a Press Gang, who, with the Assistance of some Constables, in short, seized them.”īy one count, pressed men made up 40 percent of the 450,000 sailors who served between 17. One 1740 account from England described a group of sailors who, “having refused to go the Voyage without a Rise of Wages, left their Vessel. Abusive captains could control their crews by offering those who rebelled up for impressment. “Press gangs” boarded ships, marching their crews off to the physical danger, low pay, and terrible food of the navy. Across the British empire, naval officers seized sailors and forced them into service. Magra writes that impressment was a kind of military draft that, in practice, looked more like kidnapping. In many cases, the people doing the fighting were in immediate personal danger of losing their own liberty through impressment into the British Royal Navy. Magra writes, colonists’ fights for freedom from British dominance began well before 1776. On July 4, Americans celebrate liberty and independence from Great Britain.
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