Hosted by Old North
Wednesday, November 3, 2021 | 7:00 – 8:30pm
Register here
Join historian Jared Ross Hardesty on Zoom for a discussion about his new book, Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling, and Chocolate.
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.
In this talk, Dr. Hardesty recounts the origins, events, and eventual fate of the Rising Sun’s final smuggling voyage in vivid detail. That story, as told in his new book, Mutiny on the Rising Sun, was part of a multi-year, international research project that revealed the mutiny’s connection to the Old North Church. More significantly, the project uncovered an unknown part of Old North’s history: a connection to slavery and the slave trade.
Opening with what years of research uncovered about Old North, Hardesty will narrate a deeply human history of smuggling, providing an incredible story of those caught in the webs spun by illicit commerce.
