ABB Event | Mutiny on the Rising Sun with Dr. Jared Hardesty on 1/27/22

Next up in our What Happened Here speaker series: a tragic tale of slavery, smuggling, and chocolate connected to Boston’s Old North Church

Hosted by Atlantic Black Box

Thursday, January 27, 2022, 5:00 PM EST

Register here

On the night of June 1, 1743, terror struck the schooner Rising Sun. After completing a routine smuggling voyage where Africans were sold into slavery in exchange for chocolate, sugar, and coffee in the Dutch colony of Suriname, the vessel traveled eastward along the South American coast where four members of the crew were murdered and the Rising Sun was seized. Boston’s famed Old North Church is at the center of this story. Historian Jared Ross Hardesty will discuss the connections between the congregants of Boston’s oldest surviving church and these events, as detailed in his new book, Mutiny on the Rising Sun: A Tragic Tale of Slavery, Smuggling and Chocolate. Dr. Hardesty’s years of research on this topic shed light on the ways in which illegal trade created demand for products like chocolate, and how slavery and smuggling are integral parts of New England’s history.

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 and Black Lives, Native Lands, White Worlds: A History of Slavery in New England.

What Happened Here is a new speaker series from Atlantic Black Box featuring citizen historians and scholars doing groundbreaking research to reveal the suppressed history of New England.