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Question: What is impressment!? (during the time from right after American Rev to the first few president's term)!?
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A very crude form of the draft!. Merchant seamen could be forced to serve in the navy!. They were taken right off the merchant ships!. Sometimes they were taken from pubs, etc in port towns!.

I simply don't remember if the American navy did this!. I think they did, but to a relatively limited extent, and it was controversial!.

The big issue during that time was with the British Navy!. They were very big in using impressment!. British seamen would join American ships, "emigrate" to America!. British ships would stop American merchantmen (ships) and search for British born sailors, and impress them!. They especially looked for deserters from the British Navy!. (Tattoos were a clue, as well as speech!. also, people did have papers back then!.) Pressing new Americans out of American ships was a big sore point between US and UK!. It was one of the causes of the War of 1812!.Www@QuestionHome@Com

Impressment is the forcible recruiting of people for military service!.

This was one of the causes of the War of 1812!. The British Navy would
routinely stop American vessels and remove any sailors who could not
prove they weren't British subjects, who were liable to be impressed
under British law!.

Another tactic would be to wait at local taverns and "sign up" drunk men
who didn't know what they were committing to!. The men would have to
show up for duty the next day or be subject to desertion charges!. The
so called "Press Gangs" would comb coastal towns looking for single
men from the poorer classes who wouldn't be missed if taken to sea
for a year or two!. Www@QuestionHome@Com

Impressment (press-ganging) was the act of conscripting people to serve in the military or navy, usually by force and without notice!. It was used by the Royal Navy, beginning in 1664 and during the 18th and early 19th centuries, in wartime, as a means of crewing warships, although legal sanction for the practice goes back to the time of King Edward I!. The Royal Navy impressed many British merchant sailors, as well as some sailors from other nations!. People liable to impressment were eligible men of seafaring habits between the ages of 18 and 45 years, though, albeit rarely, non-seamen were impressed as well!. If they believed that they were impressed unfairly, pressed men were able to submit appeals to the Admiralty, and those appeals were often successful!. The navy had little interest in impressing people who were not ordinary or able seamen, since they would be of no use on board ship!.

Impressment was strongly criticised by those who believed it to be contrary to the British constitution — unlike many of its continental rivals, Britain didn't conscript its subjects for any other military service, aside from a brief experiment with army impressment in 1778–80, and the public opposed conscription in general — but, as impressment was deemed vital to the strength of the navy and, by extension, to the survival of the realm, it was repeatedly upheld by the courts!. The impressment of seamen from American ships caused serious tensions between Britain and the United States in the years leading up to the War of 1812!. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1814, Britain ended the practice, and never resumed it!.Www@QuestionHome@Com