A little-known story of mutiny and murder illustrating the centrality of smuggling and slavery in early American society On the night of June 1, 1743, terror struck the schooner Rising Sun. After completing a routine smuggling voyage where the crew sold enslaved Africans in exchange for chocolate, sugar, and coffee in the Dutch colony of Suriname, the ship traveled eastward along the South American coast. Believing there was an opportunity to steal the lucrative cargo and make a new life for themselves, three sailors snuck below deck, murdered four people, and seized control of the vessel. Mutiny on the Rising Sun recounts the origins, events, and eventual fate of the Rising Sun's final smuggling voyage in vivid detail. Starting from that horrible night in June 1743, it narrates a deeply human history of smuggling, providing an incredible story of those caught in the webs spun by illicit commerce. The case generated a rich documentary record that illuminates an international chocolate smuggling ring, the lives of the crew and mutineers, and the harrowing experience of the enslaved people trafficked by the Rising Sun. Smuggling stood at the center of the lives of everyone involved with the business of the schooner. Larger forces, such as imperial trade restrictions, created the conditions for smuggling, but individual actors, often driven by raw ambition and with little regard for the consequences of their actions, designed, refined, and perpetuated this illicit commerce. At once startling and captivating, Mutiny on the Rising Sun shows how illegal trade created demand for exotic products like chocolate, and how slavery and smuggling were integral to the development of American capitalism.
Jared Ross Hardesty is Associate Professor in the Department of History at Western Washington University and author of Unfreedom: Slavery and Dependence in Eighteenth-Century Boston (NYU Press, 2018), Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England (University of Massachusetts, 2019), and Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling, and Chocolate (NYU Press, 2021).
"This page-turner introduces the reader to an Atlantic world in which smuggling across international borders allowed white New Englanders to climb the social ladder, but which was also steeped in violence and was ultimately based on the enslavement of Africans. A must-read for everyone interested in the lives of ordinary people in early America." -- Wim Klooster, author of The Dutch Moment: War, Trade, and Settlement in the Seventeenth-Century Atlantic World "A fascinating account of the nefarious world of Atlantic trade in the colonial era. Interspersed with the chilling narrative are compelling analyses of the personal networks by which transatlantic trade was organized, the brutal structure of the slave trade, and the imperial rivalries that generated the incentive for smuggling. Hardesty's intrepid research and deft storytelling bring the reader close to the lived experience of a world that wanted to stay hidden." -- Mark Peterson, author of The City-State of Boston: The Rise and Fall of an Atlantic Power, 1630-1865 "Deploys the dramatic events of a deadly mutiny off the South American coast in 1743 to tell an otherwise obscured history of smuggling in the Atlantic world. Hardesty has constructed a riveting analysis of this unsavory tale that takes us from Boston to Suriname and beyond; his argument that smuggling underscored empires and bolstered slavery is sure to make a lasting contribution to Atlantic history." -- Alison Games, author of Inventing the English Massacre: Amboyna in History and Memory "Hardesty presents a 'life and times' of mid-eighteenth-century trade relations linking West Africa, Barbados, Suriname, and Boston, uncovering a world of imperial rivalries, frequently violated trading rules, and the ever-present threat of violence." -- Carla Pestana, Distinguished Professor and Appleby Endowed Chair, UCLA "A story of cold-blooded murder, of slavery and human trafficking, and of smuggling. It is also a cautionary tale about how chocolate, a luxury enjoyed by a privileged few, became one of the world's most sought-after commodities. In Jared Hardesty's capable hands, the book reminds readers of all that has changed since the eighteenth century-and of several things that have not." -- Eliga H. Gould, author of Among the Powers of the Earth: The American Revolution and the Making of a New World Empire "A compelling and accessible read on a subject inherently difficult to investigate, Mutiny on the Rising Sun sheds much-needed light on smuggling's shadowy and sordid past." * Choice * "An engaging read that vibrantly renders the lives of its historical characters in vivid detail and with great pathos." * H-Net * "This rich work introduces readers to an intriguing and little-known episode of Atlantic violence-the 1743 mutiny on the Rising Sun, when a few crew members slaughtered their captain and other officers and took command of the ship on its smuggling/slave-trading venture to Suriname... Reminds readers how intricately slavery and freedom intertwined in early America. Hardesty captures that complexity and tragedy in a stunning way in Mutiny on the Rising Sun." * Journal of the Early Republic * "Reads as a page-turner because of the way Hardesty manages to make the best of his archival sources, elegantly building the bits and pieces of information on the protagonists and the story of the mutiny and its aftermath into the broader Atlantic history. He has produced a highly engaging and instructive analysis of interimperial commercial relations in which illicit trade was a fact of life accepted by everyone, including the colonial authorities. And, of course, also a tragic story in which capitalism, violence, and racism intertwined, in a repulsive context of modernity." * New West Indian Guide * ""For scholars of the Atlantic world and British America, Mutiny on the Rising Sun is a model case study. Hardesty shows how a routine voyage entangled dozens of individuals across multiple continents... These sources-and the larger book-reveal the violence and brutality endemic to illicit commerce in the eighteenth-century Atlantic world."" * Journal of Social History *
