Keywords: Enforcement
Item 9535
Letter about living conditions in Aroostook County, ca. 1845
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1845 Media: Ink on paper
Item 6957
Deputy sheriff helmet, ca. 1870
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: circa 1870 Media: Metal, leather, canvas
Item 116320
Capt. John Deering house, 1884-1919
Contributed by: Maine Historical Society Date: 1884–1919 Location: Portland; Portland; Kennebunkport Client: John W. Deering Architect: John Calvin Stevens
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Politics and Enforcement
"Politics and Enforcement Back to: 1865 to 1919: The Drys Gain New Adherents and Leaders X Going Where it Will Do the Most Good The Maine…"
Exhibit
Rum, Riot, and Reform - Quenching the Thirst
"… tour of Maine, showing how major communities enforced or failed to enforce liquor laws. Bunker found Bangor "the one place east of Boston where you…"
Site Page
View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.
Site Page
View collections, facts, and contact information for this Contributing Partner.
Story
Mike Remillard shares his in-depth knowledge of our community
by Biddeford Cultural & Heritage Center
You will learn a lot from Mike's fascination with many topics from church organs to submarines.
Story
Cape Verde and the Doctrines of Discovery
by Lelia DeAndrade
My Cape Verde family's culture and history is tied to the Doctrines of Discovery
Lesson Plan
Longfellow Studies: Longfellow Amongst His Contemporaries - The Ship of State DBQ
Grade Level: 9-12
Content Area: English Language Arts, Social Studies
Preparation Required/Preliminary Discussion:
Lesson plans should be done in the context of a course of study on American literature and/or history from the Revolution to the Civil War.
The ship of state is an ancient metaphor in the western world, especially among seafaring people, but this figure of speech assumed a more widespread and literal significance in the English colonies of the New World. From the middle of the 17th century, after all, until revolution broke out in 1775, the dominant system of governance in the colonies was the Navigation Acts. The primary responsibility of colonial governors, according to both Parliament and the Crown, was the enforcement of the laws of trade, and the governors themselves appointed naval officers to ensure that the various provisions and regulations of the Navigation Acts were executed. England, in other words, governed her American colonies as if they were merchant ships.
This metaphorical conception of the colonies as a naval enterprise not only survived the Revolution but also took on a deeper relevance following the construction of the Union. The United States of America had now become the ship of state, launched on July 4th 1776 and dedicated to the radical proposition that all men are created equal and endowed with certain unalienable rights. This proposition is examined and tested in any number of ways during the decades between the Revolution and the Civil War. Novelists and poets, as well as politicians and statesmen, questioned its viability: Whither goes the ship of state? Is there a safe harbor somewhere up ahead or is the vessel doomed to ruin and wreckage? Is she well built and sturdy or is there some essential flaw in her structural frame?