author
James Swan
1754–1830
A Scottish-born American merchant, patriot, and writer, he moved through the drama of the Revolution and the early republic with unusual boldness. His life stretched from the Boston Tea Party to high-stakes finance in France, ending after years of imprisonment in Paris.
1 Audiobook
About the author
Born in Fife, Scotland, in 1754, he came to Massachusetts as a boy and became involved in the politics of revolutionary Boston. He is remembered as a member of the Sons of Liberty and for taking part in the Boston Tea Party, later serving the patriot cause during the American Revolution.
He was also a writer. His best-known book, A Dissuasion to Great-Britain and the Colonies, from the Slave Trade to Africa (1772), argued against the slave trade at a remarkably early moment in American history. That combination of political action and published argument gives his story a special place in early American letters.
After the war, he built a career as a merchant and financier and became especially known for his dealings with France. The later part of his life was far less fortunate: financial troubles led to a long imprisonment for debt in Paris, where he died in 1830.