Charles Tyng has been heralded as an American hero after the posthumous publication of his memoir, Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833, in 1999. Recent research involving British Treasury report books from the nineteenth century suggest otherwise – that Tyng actively promoted and was engaged in the illicit trade of African captives. A Boston Brahmin, Tyng applied the lessons of his time at sea with Perkins & Company, the opium trading firm, to his occupation as an agent of notorious slave trading firms in Havana. This paper uses as evidence records of the captures of several vessels that implicate Tyng directly in equipping ships for the slave trade to correct the historical record and exposing a supposed hero as a predatory capitalist ignoring ethics for financial gain.
","abstract_html":"<p>Charles Tyng has been heralded as an American hero after the posthumous publication of his memoir, <em>Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833</em>, in 1999. Recent research involving British Treasury report books from the nineteenth century suggest otherwise – that Tyng actively promoted and was engaged in the illicit trade of African captives. A Boston Brahmin, Tyng applied the lessons of his time at sea with Perkins & Company, the opium trading firm, to his occupation as an agent of notorious slave trading firms in Havana. This paper uses as evidence records of the captures of several vessels that implicate Tyng directly in equipping ships for the slave trade to correct the historical record and exposing a supposed hero as a predatory capitalist ignoring ethics for financial gain.</p>","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Michaels, Paul J."],"institution":null,"degree_name":"MA in History","degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":"History","degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Thomas R. Trice","History","College of Liberal Arts"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2019,"date_issued":"2019-06-01T07:00:00Z","date_published":"2019-06-01T07:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:32:13Z","subjects":["Charles Tyng","slave trade","Havana","Cuba","Before the Wind","West Africa Squadron","Boston","African History","American Politics","International Business","Latin American History","Race and Ethnicity","Social History","United States History"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["10.15368/theses.2019.99"],"render_values":[{"text":"10.15368/theses.2019.99","href":"https://doi.org/10.15368/theses.2019.99","code":true}]}]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2083","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Thomas R. Trice","History","College of Liberal Arts"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Michaels, Paul J."]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date.available","label":"Dc Date Available","values":["2019-10-21T07:00:00Z"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_discipline","label":"Discipline","values":["History"]},{"key":"thesis:degree_name","label":"Degree Name","values":["MA in History"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Charles Tyng","slave trade","Havana","Cuba","Before the Wind","West Africa Squadron","Boston","African History","American Politics","International Business","Latin American History","Race and Ethnicity","Social History","United States History"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2083","10.15368/theses.2019.99"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["Charles Tyng has been heralded as an American hero after the posthumous publication of his memoir, Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833, in 1999. Recent research involving British Treasury report books from the nineteenth century suggest otherwise – that Tyng actively promoted and was engaged in the illicit trade of African captives. A Boston Brahmin, Tyng applied the lessons of his time at sea with Perkins & Company, the opium trading firm, to his occupation as an agent of notorious slave trading firms in Havana. This paper uses as evidence records of the captures of several vessels that implicate Tyng directly in equipping ships for the slave trade to correct the historical record and exposing a supposed hero as a predatory capitalist ignoring ethics for financial gain.
"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["New England Slave Trader: The Case of Charles Tyng"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Thomas R. Trice","History","College of Liberal Arts"],"dc:creator":["Michaels, Paul J."],"dc:date.available":["2019-10-21T07:00:00Z"],"dc:description.abstract":["Charles Tyng has been heralded as an American hero after the posthumous publication of his memoir, Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, 1808-1833, in 1999. Recent research involving British Treasury report books from the nineteenth century suggest otherwise – that Tyng actively promoted and was engaged in the illicit trade of African captives. A Boston Brahmin, Tyng applied the lessons of his time at sea with Perkins & Company, the opium trading firm, to his occupation as an agent of notorious slave trading firms in Havana. This paper uses as evidence records of the captures of several vessels that implicate Tyng directly in equipping ships for the slave trade to correct the historical record and exposing a supposed hero as a predatory capitalist ignoring ethics for financial gain.
"],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.calpoly.edu/theses/2083","10.15368/theses.2019.99"],"dc:subject":["Charles Tyng","slave trade","Havana","Cuba","Before the Wind","West Africa Squadron","Boston","African History","American Politics","International Business","Latin American History","Race and Ethnicity","Social History","United States History"],"dc:title":["New England Slave Trader: The Case of Charles Tyng"],"thesis:degree_discipline":["History"],"thesis:degree_name":["MA in History"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T01:32:13Z"}