does not appear in the sample at all. The typical seafarer could usually write his name, although with some difficulty; presumably he could also read a bit. He was native-born. Only twenty-three of the eight hundred were naturalized citizens. Although in this sample he was more likely to have been born in Philadelphia than anywhere else, there was a wide diversity of birthplaces-about 250 places for the eight hundred men, mostly small towns in the coastal states.

Even during these war years, many young boys went to sea. Of the eight hundred seafarers in the sample, thirty-seven ranged between eleven and fifteen years of age, and another seventy-one between fifteen and seventeen. Apparently the young ones did not usually run away to sea. In nearly half of the cases of certificates issued to seamen under eighteen the witness had the same name as the seaman, and the records often state that the witnesses were mothers, fathers, or sisters. Young boys went to sea in greater numbers as soon as the war was over. In May 1815, 18 percent of the new seamen were under eighteen, compared to 13 percent in 1813 and 1814.

At the other end of the scale, only twentyseven seamen receiving certificates were over forty years old. Two of the three oldest were the only men (except one) in the data set who were born on the western frontier: John Yates, fifty-three, listed his birthplace as Madison County, Kentucky, which must have been truly raw country when he was born there in the 1760s; Samuel Shelly, sixty-five, was born in Pittsburgh, then Fort Duquesne, before the French and Indian War. The crew lists show a slightly higher proportion of seafarers over forty. These men probably received their certificates at an earlier date and thus do not show up in the 1812-15 sample. Masters of the vessels were often older than their crews by large margins; being normally exempt from impressment, captains usually did not carry protection certificates. The older seamen

were shorter than the ones in their early twenties, possibly indicating that the postrevolutionary war generation of men were larger in stature than their forebears.

In the sample of 800 men, 140 or 18 percent were black. Even an incomplete list of the terms used in the records-"free black man," "mulatto," "a mulatto man born free"-provides an insight into the social structure of the early nineteenth century. All but a few of the nonwhites were listed as "free." Thus about one in five American seamen who received protection certificates in Philadelphia were Negroes, more than three times the proportion of free blacks in the general population of the area. For the 1812-15 period, the proportion of blacks receiving certificates was greater than the proportion in the crew lists (19 percent to about 10 percent), suggesting that black Americans went to sea during the war at a greater rate than in the years just before the war, or that blacks may have carried the protection certificates as evidence of their free status as well as for impressment protection. Even the affidavit forms may have been used for this purpose. Samuel Lebrang, a free mulatto, reinforced the worn folds of one such affidavit with roughwoven cloth. He had apparently carried it in his pocket since 1810. In 1814, when he was a member of the crew of the small private schooner Argo, Lebrang had a notarized copy made then turned both affidavits over to the collector of customs in Philadelphia as proof of citizenship and obtained a protection certificate.

In profile, the typical black seafarer in the sample was twenty-four years old and stood 5'61/2", slightly shorter than his white counterpart. At the under-eighteen and over-thirty ends of the scale, his literacy rate was about the same as that of the white seafarers he served with; for the group in their twenties, it was significantly lower. The black sailor's incidence of smallpox was significantly lower, but the sample is too small to draw any useful inference from

this. In this Philadelphia data set, the black seaman typically came from Maryland or Delaware.

Crew lists indicate that occasionally ships were fully manned by blacks, with the possible exception of the captain. The crew of six on the brig Fanny, sailing to Madeira in February 1813, were all listed as free Negroes; possibly the mate was also black. No description was given of James Maffett, the skipper. In other crews, blacks were usually listed as seamen or cooks, occasionally as coopers or carpenters.

The role of blacks in the War of 1812 and in early American seafaring history is only beginning to be studied. The seamen's protection certificates, particularly when examined with the available crew lists, contain diverse information on a subject that should receive additional attention from maritime historians.

There were only two Indians in the sample: Joseph Capey, twenty-seven years old, from Martha's Vineyard; and Judiah Williams, nineteen years old, from Salem County, Pennsylvania. They both stood 5′5′′ and were literate (Capey at level 2 and Williams at level 4).

About 7 percent of the men in the sample were tattooed, although the word "tattoo" was not used. The descriptions in the affidavits say "marked with a mermaid in India ink on his left arm." By a wide margin the favorite subjects for decoration were letters, usually the seaman's own initials, often linked with another pair of initials, prob

ably those of a girl whose name we will never know. There was, of course, a practical reason for tattooed initials: identification of a corpse after shipwreck.

The anchor, as a badge of the profession or a superstitious appeal to a symbol of security, was the most popular other design-as it probably is with sailors today. Hearts, alone or entwined, eagles, crucifixes, and mermaids were also common. A few used Masonic symbols or a "halfmoon and seven stars." Practically all tattooed seamen were white. The literacy of those with tattoos was significantly higher than the sample as a whole. Eleven (or about 20 percent) were between twelve and sixteen years old. One thirteen-year-old, William Mitchell, had his initials, an eagle, and a double heart tattooed on his right arm.

There is slight evidence that tattooing was more prevalent on some ships than others; possibly much of the tattooing at this period was a product of amateur shipboard work. The marked seamen seem often to have come into the same notary on the same day, as if they were shipmates herded in by their skipper to get protection certificates before sailing. Correlation of dates of birth with frequency of tattooing hints that the popularity of tattooing was periodic. There are small concentrations of

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Smallpox was still a serious disease in the early nineteenth century because vaccination was only experimental. Of the eight hundred seamen in the sample, fifty-three were described with phrases like "scarred by the smallpox" and "pitting from smallpox." Only four of the applicants had “marks of inoculation" or "the scar of a vaccination." One was John Sutherland, whose father, a physician, served as his witness.

In the years just before the war, the pattern of American trade was badly distorted and the volume diminished by British orders in council, French decrees, and American embargo, nonintercourse, and nonimportation policies. The war disrupted trade even further, and the number of protection certificates issued was correspondingly lower, compared to the years just before and just after the war. In spite of the naval risks and the British blockade, merchant vessels cleared Philadelphia for such places as Lisbon, Bordeaux, and Cadiz from January to May 1813 and for Cuba, Puerto Rico, and Santo Domingo from June through early winter. About 10 percent of the voyages from Philadelphia in 1813 and 1814 were made by privateers under letters of marque, usually listed as "Bound on a cruise" or occasionally headed for "Bordeaux" or "a port in the West Indies."

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The merchant seaman was apparently willing to go to sea in spite of the war. About four hundred new certificates were issued in Philadelphia in 1813 and 1814. Each represented, as mentioned earlier, an addition to the seafaring force-or perhaps a sailor returning to sea who decided to apply for a new certificate rather than a duplicate. From twelve hundred to fifteen hundred men, estimating from surviving crew lists, sailed from Philadelphia in those years; most of them presumably had gotten certificates earlier in their careers. Usually, however, a crew list shows two or three seamen of a typical crew of fourteen or sixteen without protection certificates.

In most cases those seamen whose names appear both in the protection certificate sample and on the crew lists got their certificates just a few days before their ships sailed from Philadelphia. For such a seaman in 1813 carrying a protection certificate was only partially a matter of avoiding impressment. With war the certificate took on a new importance as proof of non-British citizenship. A presumed Briton or a naturalized American of British birth captured at sea on an armed American letter-ofmarque vessel or privateer was viewed as being "taken in arms against his Majesty” and guilty of high treason; he was hanged after a brief court-martial. Seamen of captured merchant crews were made prisoners

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