Sailors’ Rights

The “free trade” portion of the slogan “Free Trade and Sailors’ Rights” was only the first half of Porter's intended affront at the beginning of the War of 1812. If the ideal of free trade traced its roots to the high culture of the Enlightenment, to the rarified writings of the philosophes and the ruminations of Adam Smith, the declaration for sailors’ rights expressed a different strain of the revolutionary heritage tied more directly to the politics of the streets – and of the waterfront – that reflected the democratic nature of the American Revolution. Not only was this low culture message meant to rile aristocratic captains like Sir James Yeo, it was also a not-too-subtle form of subversion intended to appeal to the common seamen who manned the Southampton. Any banner that included the phrase “Sailors’ Rights” proclaimed to the impressed seamen of the British navy that the Essex was fighting for the rights of American seamen and, by extension, the rights of all seamen. Such a statement had revolutionary implications that had deep roots in the history of Anglo-American relations.