True Yankees: The South Seas and the Discovery of American Identity

by Dane A. Morrison

After breaking free from British rule, American identity had more to do with sailing to the East than trekking into the West. Honorable Mention, US Maritime History, John Lyman Book Awards With American independence came the freedom to sail anywhere in the world under a new flag. During the years between the Treaty of Paris and the Treaty of Wangxi, Americans first voyaged past the Cape of Good Hope, reaching the ports of Algiers and the bazaars of Arabia, the markets of India and the beaches of Sumatra, the villages of Cochin, China, and the factories of Canton. Their South Seas voyages of commerce and discovery introduced the infant nation to the world and the world to what the Chinese, Turks, and others dubbed the “new people.” Drawing on private journals, letters, ships’ logs, memoirs, and newspaper accounts, Dane A. Morrison's True Yankees traces America’s earliest encounters on a global stage through the exhilarating experiences of five Yankee seafarers. Merchant Samuel Shaw spent a decade scouring the marts of China and India for goods that would captivate the imaginations of his countrymen. Mariner Amasa Delano toured much of the Pacific hunting seals. Explorer Edmund Fanning circumnavigated the globe, touching at various Pacific and Indian Ocean ports of call. In 1829, twenty-year-old Harriett Low reluctantly accompanied her merchant uncle and ailing aunt to Macao, where she recorded trenchant observations of expatriate life. And sea captain Robert Bennet Forbes’s last sojourn in Canton coincided with the eruption of the First Opium War. How did these bold voyagers approach and do business with the people in the region, whose physical appearance, practices, and culture seemed so strange? And how did native men and women―not to mention the European traders who were in direct competition with the Americans―regard these upstarts who had fought off British rule? The accounts of these adventurous travelers reveal how they and hundreds of other mariners and expatriates influenced the ways in which Americans defined themselves, thereby creating a genuinely brash national character―the “true Yankee.” Readers who love history and stories of exploration on the high seas will devour this gripping tale.

Genres: History

280 pages, Paperback

First published October 1, 2014

Reviews

[Ted Lehmann · Rating 4 out of 5]

True Yankees: The South Seas and the Discovery of American Identity (The Johns Hopkins Studies in Historical and Political Science) by Dane A. Morrison (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2014, 280 pages, $34.95) uses the voyages, writings, and experiences of American traders and sojourners Samuel Shaw, Amasa Delano, Edmond Fanning, Harriet Low and Robert Bennett Forbes during the period 1785 through 1840 to describe the expansion of American mercantilism in the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean in support of his thesis that their voyages helped spread the web of American influence and power while establishing the newly founded country's legitimacy and to develop the distinctive qualities of behavior and belief that firmly established the American character during a period where the existence and development of America a a nation and world power was still very much in question.

The five merchant world explorers in the book stand as representative of those pioneers in post-revolutionary America who sought to build their fortunes by following the China trade to build their lac (fortune) exploring far from their New England origins as they pioneered new routes to the Great South Sea, encountered new people, cultures, and economic opportunities for themselves while helping to build America's wealth back during a period of fragile economic recovery and weak international recognition. They “progressed” from seeking to trade in ginseng, cotton, seal furs and whale oils to Chinese silk, ceramics, and east Indian opium in a triangle trade similar to that between America, Africa, and the Caribbean islands in slaves. Because all five were skilled writers who shared their stories in personal journals, correspondence, and books, they established an extensive record of their activities, developing understandings of the world they functioned in, successes and failures. Morrison weaves their stories together into an intriguing period covering a little over half a century when the emerging American character was developed and established through the success of the efforts of people like them, picturing the excitement their voyages generated in the commercial and popular minds of Americans who were themselves on a voyage from being thirteen autonomous colonies toward a continent-wide nation of distinctive character and disposition. As we follow their voyages and writings, readers see the development from questing merchants following their needs and ideals to established world traders championing American exceptionalism manifested as prejudice and closed-mindedness. The remainder of this review can be found on my blog (http://tedlehmann.blogspot.com/2014/1... with an Amazon portal where you can order the book and help support my efforts. Thanks.

[Irwin · Rating 3 out of 5]

True Yankees is an excellent book contributing valuable information on America’s early story. Published as part of a series of the university’s Studies in Historical and Political Sciences, True Yankees is certainly an admirable addition to the collection. Morrison provides first-hand accounts from diaries and letters written primarily by merchants including Samuel Shaw, Amaso Delano, and Robert Bennett Forbes. These men left our new nation in search of Eastern markets for American goods. Together, they tell the tale of their welcome by the members of other nations and their hosts. Before sharing the experiences, the author details how each traveler developed into an “American” and what that even meant at the time. Anyone interested in the birth of our nation and how we entered into the world of commerce will find this a detailed resource.

There are footnotes found at the end of the book documenting sources. Also included is a detailed index. Several black-and-white portraits and illustrations are found throughout the book. These are not listed separately.

Unfortunately, True Yankees: The South Seas & the Discovery of American Identity is not everything it seems to be. By referring to the Near and Far East as the “South Seas” in the title, it reasonably makes one think it may be a sea story, which it certainly is not. The first ship to Macao, aptly named Empress of China, travelled “some 18,000 miles over six months” without any mention of experiences during the voyage. (14) Only when the ship arrived somewhere is there mention of having saluted the fort or raising the first American flag. To be fair, there is mention that travelling during the summer monsoons in the Indian Ocean was “tedious.” (13) Even though the second person featured, Amaso Delano, had been a privateer and wrote an interesting book about his voyages, it is only his contacts with members of other peoples that appear in True Yankees. His early seagoing history is solely used to explain Delano’s own brand of being an American.

In addition to the chapters which detail an individual’s experiences on the world stage, the author provides four “Interludes” on different themes. The first discusses how American merchants sent ships to every possible location during a time of war in Europe and consequent blockades and embargoes, and privateers. Others travelled to the many island nations and outposts of the British, Dutch, and Portuguese empires. With all of these ships returning with goods, the young government was quick to reestablish Customs and tariffs to help make a dent in the young nation’s debts.

The next “Interlude” discusses the spread of Americans across the Appalachian Mountains into the Ohio Valley. Some settled in the far off lands where trade was taking place. This provided a homegrown welcome to visiting American merchants and sea captains. Needless to say, this also facilitated meeting the people of other countries who were also at the port. Soon unheard of goods started filling up homes. Even some of the foreign words and expressions, including “chop,” found their way into American vocabulary.

Edmund Fanning’s Voyages Round the World is tapped to continue the author’s exploration of the book’s theme. Some attention is made to Fanning’s own life on the sea, including anecdotes of his experiences in the sealing trade. For those unaware, this was the killing of fur seals to obtain their valuable fur in a less-enlightened time period when whales were also hunted for their oil to light our cities.

Expanding wars in Europe turned American attention to greater profits for greater risks. After an earlier vessel is captured and brought into Falmouth, England, Fanning’s men are pressed aboard a Royal Navy frigate. In describing his ability to confront the officers and gain his men’s release, he claimed they knew he was “a True Yankee.” (102) Strong nationalist identity replaced feelings of timid pride men like Shaw had when travelling forth in the world.

Fanning wrote about all manner of things he and his men saw and experienced in places rarely visited. He described the sights of each place, the new plants and animals they saw, and even items of scientific knowledge.

More central to this book is the way Fanning viewed the voyage as one of increasing nationalism, where he and his twenty-seven mariners became “trustees of an American identity.” (114) The way they changed the rig of their vessel, Betsy, and the carpenter’s fashioning of fake cannons (called Quakers) to deter Malay pirates are examples of what Fanning termed “exceptionalism.” His view of Americans as superior to others shows how far the sense of our nation had changed since the end of the Revolution.

A third “Interlude” tells how numerous voyages were made across the Pacific in search of discoveries and commerce. The new nation found its way into “Europe’s academies of science” with contributions of natural history and geography. (140) Two naval expeditions into the Pacific further shifted how Americans viewed their place in the world from one of a “dispassionate observer” to “the bravado of a more arrogant . . . American.” (146)

This takes the reader to Second Generation Americans, the first of which, Harriett Low, is also the only non-merchant whose writings are discussed in True Yankees. Harriet’s own feelings as an American were more of disdain to the native peoples she encountered. Yet this is a true example of the prejudices she and other travelers to the East had at the time. Further exposures of newer peoples and longer association did nothing to make these travelers any more tolerant. In her time at Macao she even developed a disapproving attitude to the Europeans she encountered.

This attitude, as the final “Interlude” mentions, is wholly in keeping with the racial and religious prejudices that developed in the years leading up to America’s antebellum period. Ambivalence to Indians and other peoples strengthened into ethnocentrism for Americans.

Last to be referenced, Robert Bennett Forbes had “acquired Jacksonian democracy’s obsession with individualism, materialism, and racial superiority.” (194) Rather than adapting to his surroundings, Forbes wanted the East to adapt to his own beliefs. His belief in his right to conduct business even at the expense of others led to his involvement in starting the First Opium War. This serves as a final example of the way feelings of Americanism altered during the time period presented by the author.

Review Copyright 2015 by Irwin Bryan
Pirates & Privateers www.cindyvallar.com/pirates.html

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dane Morrison’s True Yankees explores how voyages to China and East Asia shaped new understandings of American national character between 1784 and 1840, the period of the “Old China,” or “Indies,” Trade.

Morrison has written a cultural history of the early United States-China trade. He explores how the trade affected Americans’ conceptions of themselves as citizens of the United States and of the world. Morrison does not deny the primacy of the economic motives that drove Americans to trade in distant lands, but they do not play a large role in his story.

True Yankees tells the stories of five American travelers who voyaged to China between 1784 and 1840. Samuel Shaw, Amasa Delano, Edmund Fanning, Harriet Low, and Robert Bennet Forbes all produced journals and/or published narratives that recounted their adventures to Asia. Morrison uses these accounts to reveal three discoveries:

1. Although Yankee travelers discussed making “discoveries” as they traveled, their discoveries did not mean that they located previously unknown peoples or places. These voyagers traveled into the Arabian Sea and the Indian and Pacific Oceans three hundred years after Europeans had first plied those waters. Instead, the Yankees meant that they had “discovered” new places and contacts as Americans; they became the first citizens of the United States to sail those distant waters as Americans.

2. American explorations of eastern oceans, islands, and countries contributed to the development of American character. American voyagers to the East came into contact with Asian, south African, Pacific Island, and European peoples who all had to decide what these new Americans were like: were they honorable? Were they like Europeans? Were they different, if so how?

3. Just as Asian, south African, Pacific island, and European peoples had to define who Americans were as a people, so did the travelers. The voyagers Morrison discusses may have traveled to the East for economic reasons, but all participated in metaphysical voyages as well. They compared themselves and their fellow Americnas with the other peoples they encountered. Were Americans savvy in business like the British? Were they fair or arbitrary as the Chinese seemed to be? Did they act humanely and morally? Answers to these questions varied over time, but each voyager asked them.

Morrison organizes his book masterfully. He divides True Yankees into two parts, five chapters, and four “interludes.” Each chapter represents the story of one Yankee traveler. The first part discusses the experiences of the first generation of Americans to travel to China while the second part explores the experiences of the second generation. Morrison uses the interludes to connect the narratives. Morrison presents the travelers’ stories in chronological order; the interludes explain what has occurred in between each voyagers’ trip to China in terms of the politics, economics, foreign policy, and national development of the United States.

Although Morrison uses the “interludes” to provide context, he does not provide an adequate explanation of what caused Americans to shift from being open minded about other cultures in the first generation and closed minded in the second generation. This is a glaring omission given his otherwise strong and cogent argument. With that said, True Yankees is a well-written and engaging history book that I recommend for any history lover who would like to learn more about early American history.

[Zeb Kantrowitz · Rating 3 out of 5]

With American independence secured by the surrender of Cornwalis at Yorktown, and the signing of the Treaty of Paris, trade with Europe and the Caribbean were no longer available. Revolutionary France was closed to trade as were its’ colonies, England and its’ colonies were also closed to the Americans, as were much of Europe when the British embargoed the Continent under Napoleon.

So those Americans who didn’t want to participate in the slave trade, were forced to look for new markets. The Mediterranean and North Africa were the home of the Barbary Pirates which made trade with Egypt and the Middle East dangerous. So the only open markets were in the “East”, that being anywhere on the other side of the Cape of Good Hope. Mostly the trade was with China, through the Portuguese enclave of Macao and the city of Canton (Guangzhou). Tea and porcelain were the most coveted of items after spices.

The book is broken up into two sections, each dealing with a different era. The first era was just before and after the Second War of Independence (War of 1812). Morrison has used memoirs, newspaper accounts and ships logs to recreate the people and times. This part covers three Captains, merchants Samuel Shaw, Amasa Delano, and explorer Edmund Fanning. They all wrote about the cities they visited and the geography of the regions that they sailed through. These ships were the first to be afforded the respect of the other ‘civilized’ nations of the world.

The second section is about two people traveling to the same area, but ten years after, and how the reactions to the Americans was now an accepted fact. No longer just the ‘new kid on the block’ we were respected competitors. Harriet Low of Massachusetts travelled to the area to live with her Uncle and Aunt and work as a governess. Her comments on the Chinese and the expatriate community are from a woman who considers herself everyone’s equal. She judges everyone by her own puritanical background. Robert Bennet Forbes (of those Forbes) tells the story of the British and European involvement in opium trading that led to the First Opium War.

All in all a very interesting study of mores and attitudes of Americans and to Americans in the first decades of the United States.

Zeb Kantrowitz zworstblog.blogspot.com