Was it Murder? Jim writes about the Navy’s Somers Affair

Was it murder? Why a US Navy hanging resonates nearly 200 years later

One hundred and eighty years ago, Captain Alexander Slidell Mackenzie, in command of the United States Navy’s brig Somers, hanged three of his crew on the high seas in the mid-Atlantic. The captain accused the three of mutiny, of conspiring to kill him, his officers, and many of his crew, most of whom were boys. A ship full of pre-teens and teenagers, led by a few adults, Somers was no ordinary warship.

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_{Featured image by Oscar Keys on Unsplash, public domain}