Civil War Bluejackets Project Conference, January 30- February 1, 2025, Annapolis, Maryland, United States

The Common Navy Sailor in the Long Nineteenth Century

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (UK) supported research project, Civil War Bluejackets: Race, Class and Ethnicity in the US Navy, http://www.civilwarbluejackets.com conference is being held in collaboration with the US Naval Academy Museum, in Annapolis, Maryland, January 30-Feb 1, 2025. You can view the full programme by clicking here.

The Conference shares work on enlisted Navy sailors from the United States and abroad from the period between the American Revolution and the beginning of the First World War. Among the themes being explored are the relationships between sailors on board their respective vessels; the class, ethnic and race relations on various national navy ships; how common sailors viewed people different from them, both military and civilian, in various wars and the campaign to stop the international slave trade; what impact/influence naval proximity had on civilian communities they came in contact with, and vice-versa; what the relations between sailors of different non-commissioned ratings (ranks) were and how they effected naval performance; how the ethnic and racial composition of naval vessels changed over time; how wartime changed, if at all, the dynamics of common sailors’ lives in naval service; and how the composition of navy crews reflect the wider societies in which naval authorities enlisted recruits.

We plan to publish a collection from the papers given at the conference.