“A Strange Race of Men”: Seamen in 19th-Century America FREE

2007-04-17 19:30:00 - 2007-04-17 20:30:00

Free

Friends' Hall

During the 19th century, Americans decided that sailors constituted a different breed of men. Canonized by Cooper, Dana, and Melville, this conception has come to dominate our understanding of the seafaring experience, yet it is not entirely true. Daniel Vickers, professor of history at the University of British Columbia and co-author of Young Men and the Sea: Yankee Seafarers in the Age of Sail, will talk about how our modern stereotypes of the sailor came into being.