Page 18 - Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens - October '24

Page 18, Lifestyles in Palm Beach Gardens
Book Review

American Sanctuary: Mutiny, “had the right to regain his freedom after having been the electoral campaign focused on driving the public’s anger,
form the major part of this compelling story.
victim of such impressment” and return home.
Martyrdom, And National Identity Adams’s decision to turn Robbins over to Britain— Eventually—and critical in light of today’s political
In The Age Of Revolution where he was executed by hanging without a trial— climate and immigration crisis—the American people
Adams’s Federalist Party’s defense of his decision, and the
consequences of Jefferson’s Republican Party’s national Book Review on page 19
By Nils A. Shapiro
I cannot recall ever
enjoying a scholarly work
of early American history
so interestingly and vividly
told, so extraordinarily
researched and impressively
detailed, exciting as any
novel, and as timely in
subject as next month’s Upscale Resale
presidential election!
The date was September Experience The Difference
21, 1797. The event was a vicious mutiny by the crew of
a British naval vessel, HMS Hermione, in the Caribbean New and consigned furniture, unique lighting, accessories and gifts.
off the coast of Puerto Rico. Little remembered today, its Complete wallpaper and fabric library for all your design needs.
aftershock was to lead directly to the election of Thomas
Jefferson over the incumbent John Adams as president of
the United States … and the resulting lasting image of
America as a sanctuary of freedom for those fleeing from
persecution in other lands—an issue that dominates today’s
political campaigns just as it did the one in 1800.
I must admit that,
although it was published
in 2017, I had never heard
of American Sanctuary
and was fortunate to come
across it by accident on a Call us to sell. See us to buy.
table stacked with books Over 32,000 sq. ft. in 2 locations to serve you!
while shopping in a market.
Its author, A. Roger Ekirch, PALM BEACH GARDENS: New Location
is a professor of history at 7700 N Military Trail • 561.694.0964
Virginia Tech, has written
four earlier books, received WELLINGTON: Wellington Marketplace
a Guggenheim Fellowship 13857 Wellington Trace • 561.798.5222
and is widely recognized as
one of our finest historians. myconsignanddesign.com Nanci Smith, CEO
The details that enrich this narrative, garnered from the
author’s extraordinary research, add enormously to the
overall experience, as do the many contemporary portraits
and illustrations from that period.
Revolutionary and early American history being one
of my preferred reading tastes I was surprised never to
have heard of the very significant event that is the pivotal
subject of this book: the mutiny aboard HMS Hermione.
Nor, shockingly, was it ever mentioned in any class, even
through college.
At the time the mutiny took place—after the United
States had already won the Revolutionary War several
years earlier and declared itself an independent nation—
one of the most objectionable policies of the British
crown and its navy was the practice of “impressment”: the
stopping and boarding of other nations’ vessels, capturing
members of their crews and forcing them to sail and work
as seamen on British ships, most likely never to see their
families again.
Such was the case of many on the Hermione’s crew as
it sailed near the island of Puerto Rico on that September
day in 1797. Adding to what was already a tinder box of
a situation was the fact that this ship’s captain, Admiral
Hugh Pigot, was a disciplinarian so stern that whipping
and other punishments for minor crew offenses became
unbearable and sparked the bloody insurrection that ended
in the death of the captain and other officers.
One of the
main leaders of
the mutiny was
a m a n wh o se
name throughout
this book varies
between Thomas
Nash (if he was
actually Irish) and
Jonathan Robbins,
depending upon whether his claim to have been an
American from Connecticut was true or not.
Eventually, after the mutiny Robbins made his way to
the U.S. and was tracked down by the British government,
which demanded that President John Adams turn over the
“mutineer and murderer” to Britain for punishment. It was
awkward timing, for Adams was then in the process of
ratifying an economic trade treaty with Britain that had
just been negotiated.
Adams had to weigh the success of the treaty against
the American public’s anger about the British policy and
actions of impressment on the high seas and the idea of
turning over to Britain a claimed American citizen who