[Codman, John]:

$300 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

A LETTER TO HON. CHARLES SUMNER OF THE UNITED STATES SENATE, ON THE CONDITION AND REQUIREMENTS OF THE AMERICAN MERCANTILE MARINE. Highly opinionated and inflammatory letter by John Codman, protesting the cruelties shown to sailors in the American Merchant Marine. Codman rails against ship owners and advance wages as the cause of the decline in conduct and conditions in the merchant service, claiming that paying advance wages is, in effect, buying the sailor: "I have said that sailors are chattels, bought and sold. They are infinitely more enslaved than the Negroes of the South, for whom it is the interest of their masters to care." He also blames ships' officers, the law, and the abolition of flogging in the Navy and merchant service. OCLC lists only eight copies.

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