Born in New York City in 1819, Herman Melville began a career at sea when he was nineteen years old. He served first on a merchant ship and later on an American navy vessel, his experiences furnishing him with material that inspired his later fiction. Completed at age seventy-two in his final year of life, Billy Budd, Sailor (also called Billy Budd, Foretopman), reflects the author's personal views and feelings on religion and humanity as he approached death.
War between England and France. France erupted in revolution in July 1789. A new government came to power, conquered Belgium and several other areas of Europe, and executed France's previous ruler, King Louis XVI, on January 21, 1793. At the outset, participants in the French Revolution set out to acquire a greater share of rights in a land that had long experienced an unequal distribution of wealth and power. Turning on French nobles with a bloody vengeance, the rebels rioted, raped, looted, and murdered in their pursuit of a government dedicated to freedom from unfair taxes and other laws they felt were prejudiced.
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