Fruits of One Tree

  Archibald Willard, Spirit of 76, Wikimedia Commons (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spirit_of_76_Herrick_Memorial_Library.jpg: accessed 8 July 2024). Although most of my family came to America in the mid-1800s, we do have some ancestors who fought in the Revolutionary War; one lost his life. We had family in New Jersey, Connecticut and Massachusetts at that time. New Jersey was a crossroads of armies of both sides, but I have not discovered any ancestors who fought from that state. One of our ancestors with the most dramatic life was Moses Hale, a ship captain from Newburyport, Massachusetts. Since the brand-new United States had no navy, it commissioned existing ships and seamen to attack the British Navy, the largest in the world. These Americans were called privateers by the Americans, and pirates by the British. Shipowners would apply to the Continental Congress for a Letter of Marque authorizing their ships to attack British ships. The shipowner and captain had to ta...