Early Life and Education
Born near Hempstead, New York on Long Island, Truxtun was the only son of an English country lawyer. He lost his father at a young age and was taken to Jamaica on Long Island with relatives and placed under the care of a close friend, John Troup. Having little chance for a formal education he joined the crew of the British merchant ship Pitt at an early age of 12. Truxtun went against his father's previous wishes for him to pursue a career in politics and so at the age of twelve he left his home in Jamaica and joined the merchant Marine.
Read more about this topic: Thomas Truxtun
Famous quotes containing the words early, life and/or education:
“I do not know that I meet, in any of my Walks, Objects which move both my Spleen and Laughter so effectually, as those Young Fellows ... who rise early for no other Purpose but to publish their Laziness.”
—Richard Steele (1672–1729)
“There was a heavy power in her eyes which laid hold of his whole being, as if he had drunk some powerful drug. He had been feeling weak and done before. Now the life came back into him, he felt delivered from his own fretted, daily self.”
—D.H. (David Herbert)
“Whatever may be our just grievances in the southern states, it is fitting that we acknowledge that, considering their poverty and past relationship to the Negro race, they have done remarkably well for the cause of education among us. That the whole South should commit itself to the principle that the colored people have a right to be educated is an immense acquisition to the cause of popular education.”
—Fannie Barrier Williams (1855–1944)