SOURCE: Vitzthum, Richard C. “‘Learn What It Is to Go to Sea,’ 1780-1786.” In Land and Sea: The Lyric Poetry of Philip Freneau, pp. 45-86. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1978.

In the following excerpt, Vitzthum suggests that Freneau's capture and subsequent imprisonment by the British marked a turning point in his personal philosophy and writing career.

In 1778 Robert Bell published and gave Freneau a complimentary copy of the fourth number of the Miscellanies for Sentimentalists series, which included Freneau's patriotic poem “American Independence.” In this volume, which he kept for the rest of his life, Freneau scribbled marginalia from time to time. The most interesting of the marginalia appear in the section titled “Maxims and Moral Reflections by the Duke de la Rochefoucault.” On the back of the dedication page for the section, Freneau penned three maxims of his own, the first two bearing no resemblance to any...