The Maritime Captures That Caused Then Outlasted the United States’ Quasi War with France
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University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Masters Theses Dissertations and Theses October 2019 “Nothing Material Occurred”: The Maritime Captures That Caused Then Outlasted the United States’ Quasi War with France Emma Zeig University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2 Part of the Military History Commons, Other History Commons, Political History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Zeig, Emma, "“Nothing Material Occurred”: The Maritime Captures That Caused Then Outlasted the United States’ Quasi War with France" (2019). Masters Theses. 863. https://doi.org/10.7275/15445053 https://scholarworks.umass.edu/masters_theses_2/863 This Open Access Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Dissertations and Theses at ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Masters Theses by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. “Nothing Material Occurred”: The Maritime Captures That Caused Then Outlasted the United States’ Quasi War with France A Thesis Presented by EMMA WINTER ZEIG Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts Amherst in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of MASTER OF ARTS September 2019 History Ó Copyright by Emma Winter Zeig 2019 All Rights Reserved “Nothing Material Occurred: the Maritime Captures That Cause then Outlasted the United States’ Quasi War with France” A Thesis Presented By EMMA WINTER ZEIG Approved as to style and content by: Marla Miller, Chair Jennifer Heuer, Member Brian Ogilvie, Chair, History Department ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis has been in the making for well over a year, and I would not have been able to complete it without help. My readers, Professor Marla Miller and Professor Jennifer Heuer, were sources of invaluable assistance throughout this process, guiding me toward sources, talking through arguments, and inspiring me to keep improving. The staff at the New York Historical Society, Massachusetts Historical Society, and the Library of Congress were always helpful and created a great research environment. In addition, I would like to thank the supervisors at my summer internship at the National Museum of American History, in particular Ryan Lintelman, for allowing me to shift my work hours in order to accommodate archival research. Though I started working on this thesis in the winter of 2018, I have been thinking about this topic for a long time – I would not have thought to explore it further if it were not for my undergraduate studies with Professor Katherine Grandjean and Dr. Rebecca Dresser. On a personal level, I would like to thank all of my friends and colleagues for supporting me throughout this process, in particular Caitlin Pharo and Amanda Maisel, without whom this thesis would not have been finished. I would also like to thank my grandmother, Diane Winter, who always spurs me to work harder, and who gave me my first positive review, when she told me that she liked that she had never heard about my topic before. Lastly, and most importantly, I could not have done this without my parents, who have endless patience for listening to me talk about the Quasi War, and who are always there to read drafts and offer advice. iv ABSTRACT “NOTHING MATERIAL OCCURRED”: THE MARITIME CAPTURES THAT CAUSED THEN OUTLASTED THE UNITED STATES’ QUASI WAR WITH FRANCE SEPTEMBER 2019 EMMA WINTER ZEIG, B.A. WELLESLEY COLLEGE M.A. UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS AMHERST Directed by: Professor Marla Miller This thesis examines the French maritime seizures during the eighteenth-century US Quasi War with France (also called the half war, or the United States’ undeclared war with France), encompassing events on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, in France, the United States, and the Caribbean, particularly Haiti. The analysis focuses on the captured ships, telling the stories of seamen who feared for their lives and merchants who lost their ships. This point of view allows the thesis to explore an area of the Quasi War that are less documented in other histories: how civilian participants experienced violence and the indifference of governments that valued property over people. The Law of Nations had a certain amount of ambiguity when it came to captured crews. However, the questionable legality of French seizures and the system of decrees created to sustain them fostered an environment designed create situations where those in the maritime trade lacked credibility when they documented their dangerous situations. By examining seizures that chiefly took place before the more commonly considered date of the conflict (1798). This thesis will attempt to show how extending the timeline of the war allows for a narrative centering the experience of the seizures, and focusing on more than just the political class. Drawing on newspaper articles, legislative records, court records and other v judicial records, as well as letters, and family papers, the thesis argues that while no single seizure was a defining event for the country, many were defining events for the individuals involved, and as a whole they constituted the foundation to the conflict. Concentrating on the seizures will not only reveal new perspectives on the Quasi War, but also providing context to other scholarship on the war, where the seizures are less fully explored. Humanizing the Quasi War is important, both because these seizures are an infrequently explored area of scholarship, and because understanding what the conflict meant to everyday Americans makes it easier to understand why it had meaning on a larger scale. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................................... IV ABSTRACT ...................................................................................................................... V LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................ IX INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 1 CHAPTER I. “FOR GOD’S SAKE DON’T ADVENTURE ANY MORE THIS WAY” ............ 26 A. The Rules of the Game ......................................................................................... 30 B. The Climate of an Undeclared War ...................................................................... 33 C. A Standard Capture ............................................................................................... 38 II. DEVOURING THE FRUITS OF REVOLUTION ................................................. 49 A. The Navigation Act ............................................................................................... 52 B. Keeping the Capture ............................................................................................. 58 C. Keeping Seizures in the Caribbean ....................................................................... 66 D. The US and the Caribbean .................................................................................... 70 III. “NO DOUBT THEY WILL PLUNDER CONSIDERABLE” ............................. 83 A. The Dorrs .............................................................................................................. 83 B. The Ariadne .......................................................................................................... 88 C. The Jane ................................................................................................................ 92 D. The Rebecca ........................................................................................................ 103 IV. “THE SCARS WILL BE WITH HIM TO THE GRAVE” ................................ 114 A. The Threat of Violence .......................................................................................... 118 B. Starvation ............................................................................................................ 125 C. Truth… ................................................................................................................ 131 D. …and Consequences ........................................................................................... 140 vii V. “EMBASSY TO THE COUNTRY OF THE SAVAGE” ..................................... 146 A. Bailey’s Predicament .......................................................................................... 149 B. Intervention ......................................................................................................... 152 C. The Maritime Network ....................................................................................... 157 D. The Tom .............................................................................................................. 159 E. The Return .......................................................................................................... 161 CONCLUSION: DOUGHNUTS AND DESCENDANTS ......................................... 167 BIBLIOGRAPHY ......................................................................................................... 178 viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure Page 1. Map of destinations of captured US ships in the Caribbean………………………..75 ix INTRODUCTION Captain Jonathan Story and John Colhoun were sitting down to dinner on Oracabissa the as the sun set on an autumn evening in 1797,