oh, my gosh....one of those nights when I chose exactly the right book.....
I was a bit tired of the kinds of books that I had been reading.....I wanted a book that was not hard....not too much thinking but still giving me real understanding of a time and a place......I don't know how I was lucky enough to find exactly what my brain needed right now. I can not say enough good things about what I have read so far. It starts with Indians before the white man comes to the Chesapeake.....oh, my....the book is worth the price of reading if that is all you read. This man had an incredible imagination.
I have read about Rosalind who was not pretty which influenced her life....married to a man who had inherited the Steed plantation but was not up to snuff when it came to running the plantation but was lucky to have married a woman who was "up to snuff"....
But now I have read up to the Revolution....and these pages that I have listened to have such an insight into those men who had always been loyal to Great Britain ....traded with the companies ....without any thought of doing anything different became unloyal because of in the example in the book the man who represented the church was TERRIBLE! He was taking people's land when they couldn't come up with the tithe in tobacco. He was taking men who were Catholic or Quaker into the court room. And the court room scene he describes has three men being tried for not paying their tithes to the terrible man who represents the church of England....he has taken them into court. The Steed man is a Catholic and objects to supporting another church. The second man is a Paxmore and he is a quaker and objects to supporting another church. The third man is from the swamps....a descendant of the man who was deported many years ago from England instead of having been executed....the surname is Turlock....the family has lived in the swamp ever since. And he has no tobacco with which to pay his tithe. The year was just before the Revolutionary War....and it is easy to read the unhappiness with which the rector is causing in his parish. He stands for the establishment, but he fills it as a person for whom no one respects nor likes...this was probably happening all over the colonies? As Steed and Paxmore walk away talking they agree the time has come to build a Schooner....that schooners will be need in the years to come if war is inevitable....neither of these men would want war....but they know the man from the swamps and others like him will indeed want war.
This information is found on my audible book at 31 h 36 min left
Up until this time, they have been building or owning sailing ships for their trade with Great Britain as show below. Now they will need schooners as shown above for the war with Great Britain.
It has been the pirates who have sailed in the smaller schooners because they are faster and can go places a large ship is unable to go. The men make the decision that this smaller boat is the kind of ship they are going to need in the upcoming days.
History of the Schooner
With striking similarities to many 17th-century Dutch ship designs, origins of the schooner are believed to be around New England during the early colonial period of the United States. Built for speed and efficiency in coastal sailing, the design of the schooner then led to the development of the famous Clipper ship design. With its origins in the Chesapeake Bay, the Clipper ship design grew in popularity as the descendant of the schooner.
Schooners and Pirates
Throughout its early history, the schooner was even known to be the preferred vessel of pirates! Because of their speed and efficiency, schooners were recognized as pirate ships sailing around the Caribbean, often holding more than 60 men at a time. In true pirate ship fashion, many schooners also contained nearly ten guns, with swivel guns included as well.
As Steed starts home after agreeing on the sloop, he is thinking large thoughts about society. When he thinks large thoughts he thinks in France as he was educated in France....and his thoughts go to Montesquieu....he spent a summer on Montesquieu...and before I go farther I had to google the philosopher....and here is what I read:
What were three of Montesquieu's ideas?
He believed that the administrative powers were divided into the executive, the judicial and the legislative. His writings detailed that the three powers should at once be separate from one another and dependent upon one another. In that way, Montesquieu believed, no power should become stronger than another.
