He was flogged if he sulked and again if he smiled flogged until the blood ran for a hundred offenses as trivial as these.

His food was unspeakably bad and often years passed before he was allowed to set foot ashore.

Decent men refused to volunteer and the ships were filled with the human scum and refuse caught in the nets of the press-gangs of Liverpool, London, and Bristol.
It is largely forgotten or unknown that this system of recruiting was as intolerable in England as it was in the United States and as fiercely resented.

Oppressive and unjust, it was nevertheless endured as the bulwark of England's defense against her foes.

It ground under its heel the very people it protected and made them serfs in order to keep them free.