“The American Maritime People” is a five-week college and university faculty institute for twenty participants on the American maritime experience over the past four centuries. This summer institute at Mystic Seaport Museum (MSM) brings interdisciplinary perspectives to 400 years of American maritime experience. In the first week scholars include James T. Carlton (Williams College) on introduced species; Roderick Mather (University of Rhode Island) on early maritime exploration and colonization; and Marcus Rediker (University of Pittsburgh) on colonial maritime labor, piracy, and the slave trade. In the second week, co-directors Glenn S. Gordinier (MSM) and Eric Roorda (Bellarmine University) speak, respectively, on smuggling during the Embargo of 1807 and the growth of the West Indies trade; Jeffrey Bolster (University of New Hampshire) and Daniel Vickers (University of British Columbia) speak on African-American sailors and the working community of Essex County, Massachusetts. Week three features Lisa Norling (University of Minnesota) on women passengers under sail and Helen Rozwadowski (University of Connecticut, Avery Point) on human exploration of the deep sea. In week four, John Odin Jensen (Sea Education Association) discuss maritime labor on the Great Lakes and inland waterways, and the growth and decline of fishing communities, and literature professor Mary K. Bercaw Edwards (University of Connecticut, Avery Point) talks about Herman Melville and whaling industry life. The final week focuses on containerization, the demise of the U.S. merchant marine, entertainment, and the cruise industry. Field seminars on commercial fishing and naval culture are held at Stonington, Connecticut and Newport, Rhode Island. Readings include Bolster, Keyssar and Roland, The Way of the Ship; Labaree, Hattendorf, et al., America and the Sea; Norling, Captain Ahab Had a Wife; Rediker, The Slave Ship; and Vickers, Young Men and the Sea.
