Poseidon’s Curse: British Naval Impressment and the Atlantic Origins of the American Revolution

Impressment, the coercion of men into naval service—whether by a man-of-war stopping a merchantman at sea or a press-gang capturing men ashore—is an issue most often associated with the War of 1812. In Poseidon’s Curse, however, Magra makes a compelling case that “the press,” as the abduction of mariners was colloquially known, played a pivotal role in justifying the movement for American independence. In arguing as much, Magra is swimming against the historiographical current to some extent. The received wisdom is that impressment was not common enough in British North America to motivate revolutionaries. Moreover, even when press gangs were resisted, crowd actions tended to be conservative rather than radical. Communities targeted particularly odious naval officers but did not consider these violent reprisals as part of any systemic critique of the British Empire. But Magra asks, if anti-impressment was largely apolitical, why was the practice mentioned in the Declaration...