![]() ![]() The home of Florence Higginbotham is being renovated and upon completion will open to the public for tours and events. Boston later cofounded the African Meeting House. “In 1822, Captain Boston took a voyage with 200 Black men aboard the schooner The Industry, and they all came back after six months,” Frazier says, returning with 70 barrels of oil. Boston was the first Black captain to own his own whaling ship. One of the best known was Captain Absalom Boston (1785-1855), whose portrait hangs in the Whaling Museum. “They developed a culture of working together and living together.”īlack sailors weren’t just crew on Nantucket’s whaling ships - some were captains. These men were intertwined to survive, and this became part of the fabric of the island,” Wilson explains. “There’s an interdependence with life aboard ship. To that end, Black and white mariners worked side-by-side on fishing boats and whaling ships, out at sea for months at time. Nantucket, of course, was all about life on the sea. ![]() It was invested in us on our journey to America,” Wilson says. One major connector between Black and white islanders on Nantucket: The sea. If you didn’t realize that, you’re not alone: Wilson calls it a “large gap in US history.” Scholars involved with the museum, and Nantucket’s Black Heritage Trail, are aiming to close it. “Nantucket is an established place of Black experience in American history,” says Leon Wilson, the new president and CEO of the Museum of African American History. Many New Englanders are aware of Martha’s Vineyard’s history as a haven for Blacks, but Nantucket’s past as it relates to people of color? Not so much. “This unfortunate event gave us the chance to shed light on Nantucket’s untold story,” says L’Merchie Frazier, director of education and interpretation at the Museum of African American History Boston/Nantucket. The vandalism was a hateful act, but there was also a bright side: Some folks didn’t realize the African Meeting House - the epicenter of Nantucket’s African American history - even existed. The community came together and quickly repaired the damage. 1827 African Meeting House was vandalized. You probably remember reading the story: In March 2018, Nantucket’s c. ![]()
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