True Yankees looks at four men and one woman from long established Massachusetts families who helped form the American national identity while they lived and worked in China and the Pacific islands. Through their efforts, consciously or not, they helped establish the new nation's place as an independent country. Dane A. Morrison looks at the writings of the first generation of American China traders, including Samuel Shaw, Amasa Delano, and Edmund Fanning and compares their ideas with the views of Robert Forbes and Harriett Low who grew up in an established United States but whose ideas about the world were far less empathetic than the earlier generation's.
Discussing each of his travelers independently and explaining their travels, experiences, and interactions with Pacific islanders and Asians, Morrison ties the chapters and personalities together with “Interludes” between chapters that extrapolate on the importance of their contributions to American national identity. All five of the merchants and travelers published accounts of their adventures and experiences, as well as gave lectures. Their publications followed the style of earlier British writers as they described the people they met and the places they visited. The subjects of Morrison's work spent most of their time in the Macao and Canton regions of southeastern China ranging from several weeks to several years with some journeys being separated by a number of years. The experiences of these ex-patriots included an attempted takeover of Nuku Hiva in Polynesia, trading opium on the eve of the First Opium War, and serving as a caregiver for an American trader. Despite their different reasons for being in what was known as the South Seas, a common feature of the five sojourners was that they sought acceptance by Europeans and Asians as citizens of a new country with great promise.
Starting with Samuel Shaw's 1784–1794 experiences in China and ending with Robert Forbes's encounters with the Chinese at the start of the Opium War, the book shows how the Americans in Asia formed their own society and how they developed friendships with Europeans involved in similar businesses in China. The associations between the Americans and the Europeans grew out of necessity as the early American desires to trade in China needed the assistance of, for example, the British, French, and Dutch who taught the Americans how to maneuver through the Chinese bureaucracy. The Chinese found the Americans easier to work with and less demanding than the Europeans, permitting the Americans to develop good relationships with the local population.
The five people in Morrison's book considered themselves to be staunchly American. They believed in the importance of making sure that the United States was looked upon by other nations as a country to be worked with on an equal footing. There is no doubt that this is accurate; however, what needs to be taken into consideration is how much their overseas experiences influenced their decisions. Did the Americans who lived in the South Seas community become “more American,” so to speak, precisely because of their expatriate status? Those who lived far from their families and friends often adopted some customs and languages of the lands where they lived. Expatriates could not keep themselves isolated and still expect to be accepted by the local population and the people from other nations. Learning the customs, languages, and habits of those around them was vital to business and social success. Without the personal interactions with the foreign communities, the lives of expatriates could be extremely lonely and even dangerous if problems arose in the overseas nations.
Morrison credits the expatriates with defining the True Yankee and it is indeed fascinating that the image of the American comes from those not a part of society in the home country. How were the writings and lectures given by the five people that the author covers received by those in the United States? When they returned to their homes, were they able to blend back into society or did they, in some manner, seem different to their friends and relatives who never lived overseas? The experience of living in a different country is often a life changing event and how their lives overseas changed them is something to consider.
A few other questions come to mind about the American expatriates living around the South Seas, such as how many Americans lived overseas and whether or not the five subjects of this book interacted with people who lived in Asia as British subjects before the Revolution and as American citizens after the war? Did the Americans in Asia combine their self-identity with a national identity, especially considering that many of them hoped to earn their lac (the minimum needed to establish a family in comfort)? Did their long absences from family, friends, and the United States make the new nation seem more idealized?
Morrison provides readers with four men's views of life overseas, yet only one woman's experiences. How representative was Harriet Low of the women who lived in southeastern China, India, or elsewhere? She appeared to complain about many things; was that common for American women? The book is an interesting look at a few Americans who sought their riches in the overseas markets of Asia and the Pacific. It opens other opportunities to research the lives of expatriate Americans about how they lived, how they experienced foreign cultures, and what impact the experiences had on their lives and futures, and even on how they viewed the United States.
