tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2803969651277143887.post2163346069344710117..comments2024-01-30T04:15:42.071-05:00Comments on British Tars, 1740-1790: Executioners of Their Friends: Impressment and the RevolutionKyle Daltonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13428848890576823316noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2803969651277143887.post-77327512883267172402018-03-06T09:54:55.731-05:002018-03-06T09:54:55.731-05:00I do not argue that impressment was a widespread p...I do not argue that impressment was a widespread practice by American naval forces, but it undeniably did happen throughout the conflict as you can see in the sources above. If it were indeed "fake news," it would require the collaboration of the United States Navy, National Archives, Maryland State Archives, University of Virginia, and independent publishers and scholars for over forty years. Given that it paints American naval forces in a negative light, it's even more unlikely to have been made up by United States naval historians. That's a wide ranging conspiracy for such a relatively esoteric subject.Kyle Daltonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13428848890576823316noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2803969651277143887.post-84913149710823891032018-02-07T12:15:51.068-05:002018-02-07T12:15:51.068-05:00That impressment may have occurred in a few instan...That impressment may have occurred in a few instances -- here the author cites two and the accounts themselves requiring scrutiny to get at what specifically was being described and by who and how credible -- is not (yet) proof of the practice in America having been anything more than an anomaly -- if that is, it can be accurately said it even was a problem at all. If the allegation is true, and this is the first time in decades of study the Revolutionary War that I ever even heard of such a charge, then I would readily agree it is quite a bombshell. But that's just the thing -- is it true (or more fake news, and of our own day and age, mayhap)?William Thomas Shermanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12508291440468457337noreply@blogger.com