Shannon, under Captain William Peel, was escorting troops to China, in readiness for expected conflict there, when mutiny broke out among the sepoys in India. It was his service with Shannon that led to the Victoria Cross. He then joined the crew of HMS Shannon as Captain of the Foretop. Hall was a member of the naval brigade that landed from the fleet to assist ground forces manning heavy gun batteries, and he received British and Turkish medals for his work during this campaign.Īfter the Crimean War, Hall was assigned to the receiving ship HMS Victory at Portsmouth, England. His first service, as Able Seaman with HMS Rodney, included two years in the Crimean War. Perhaps a search for adventure caused young William Hall to leave a career in the American merchant navy and enlist in the Royal Navy in Liverpool, England, in 1852. He then joined the crew of a trading vessel and, before he was eighteen, had visited most of the world’s important ports. As a young man, Hall worked in shipyards at Hantsport for several years, building wooden ships for the merchant marine. He grew up during the age of wooden ships, when many boys dreamed of travelling the world in sailing vessels. William Hall was the first Black person, the first Nova Scotian and one of the first Canadians to receive the British Empire’s highest award for bravery, the Victoria Cross.The son of former American slaves, Hall was born in 1827 at Horton, Nova Scotia, where he also attended school. The conflict in which Hall was decorated is today understood as the Indian Rebellion of 1857, a sustained campaign of resistance to the British East India Company's abusive governance.

These actions should be understood in the context of the broader processes of imperialism and resistance of which they are a part.

While Hall had no role in shaping imperial policy, the actions of which he was a part were instrumental in extending and consolidating colonial rule over large parts of the non-British world. William Hall's Royal Navy career coincided with a period of rapid and often violent expansion of British imperial power worldwide: in eastern Asia, on the Indian subcontinent, and elsewhere.

Sepoy mutiny definition for kids