american whistleblowers

Whistleblowing is nothing new … the country’s first whistleblower case can be traced back to its founding. Our villain is a man named Esek Hopkins, born in 1718 to a prominent Rhode Island family. He went to sea as a privateer at the age of 20 and made a name for himself in 1765 by captaining the slave ship Sally, from West Africa to the West Indies. During the journey, 109 out of the 196 slaves aboard lost their lives.