Articles

• Who was Joseph R. Lewis Jr.?
  Joseph R. Lewis Jr. (1850–1925) was a farm laborer and lived his entire life on Nantucket. Born in the Cape...More Read more from Who was Joseph R. Lewis Jr.?
• Arthur Cooper’s Escape from Slavery
  Arthur Cooper fled slavery in Virginia, settling on Nantucket around 1820 with his wife Mary and their children, who were...More Read more from Arthur Cooper’s Escape from Slavery
• Who was Florence E. Clay Higginbotham?
  Born in Virginia in 1893, Florence E. Clay Higginbotham made Nantucket her home. After formally training at the Boston Cooking...More Read more from Who was Florence E. Clay Higginbotham?
• Who was Diana Jones?
  Diana Jones (1801–1879) was born in New York and came to Nantucket sometime in the 1820s. Around 1828, she became...More Read more from Who was Diana Jones?
• Black Activism Before the Civil War
  The Black community on Nantucket protested and mobilized against racism in a wide variety of ways before the Civil War....More Read more from Black Activism Before the Civil War
• What was Scott’s Hall?
  Franklin “Frank” Scott (b. 1870) and his wife, Mary Chapman Scott (b. 1889), were not the first black Nantucketers to...More Read more from What was Scott’s Hall?
• Who was Paul Cuffe?
  Whaling captain and merchant Paul Cuffe, sometimes spelled Cuffee, (1759–1817) was one of the most prominent and financially successful people...More Read more from Who was Paul Cuffe?
• The History of the Chicken Box
  It may be surprising to learn that the “black Colonel Sanders of Nantucket” was originally from Kentucky. Born on November...More Read more from The History of the Chicken Box
• Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre prints
  Crispus Attucks is regarded as the first martyred hero of the American Revolution. He escaped from slavery in Framingham, Massachusetts,...More Read more from Crispus Attucks and the Boston Massacre prints
• Who was Mary Ellen Pleasant?
  Mary Ellen Pleasant, born a slave in Georgia in circa 1817, came to Nantucket in 1827 as a young bonded...More Read more from Who was Mary Ellen Pleasant?
• Did men from New Guinea Nantucket neighborhood participate in the Civil War?
  About twenty men of color who identified Nantucket as their hometown served in the Union Navy and the Union Army...More Read more from Did men from New Guinea Nantucket neighborhood participate in the Civil War?
• Who was Josephine White Hall?
  Josephine White Hall was a beloved mezzosoprano who was featured artist in the Noonday Concert series at the Unitarian Church...More Read more from Who was Josephine White Hall?
• What was the Brotherhood of Thieves Riot?
  The Brotherhood of Thieves Riot refers to riots that occurred in the streets of Nantucket in the summer of 1842....More Read more from What was the Brotherhood of Thieves Riot?
• When was the African Meeting House at Five Corners built?
  Members of the New Guinea community began building the Meeting House in 1823, but the building was not yet finished...More Read more from When was the African Meeting House at Five Corners built?
• What was the atmosphere on Nantucket when Frederick Douglass made his first visit?
  Coming up to August 1841, intense debate was being carried on through letters published in the island’s newspapers. A battle...More Read more from What was the atmosphere on Nantucket when Frederick Douglass made his first visit?
• Hannah Cook Boston, 1795 – 1857, First Female Steamship Stewardess
  Born in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, in 1795, Hannah Cook Boston married the twice-widowed Absalom Boston in 1827, and was instantly a...More Read more from Hannah Cook Boston, 1795 – 1857, First Female Steamship Stewardess
• Annie Mattie Nahar
  Raw Courage Annie Mattie Nahar first appears in 1855 as a ten-year-old in the York Street household of Abraham and...More Read more from Annie Mattie Nahar
• Nancy Gardner Prince, daughter of a Black Nantucket whaler
  A Cosmopolitan Life Nancy Gardner Prince was aware of her roots. As a middle-aged woman writing her autobiography in 1850,...More Read more from Nancy Gardner Prince, daughter of a Black Nantucket whaler
• Was Nantucket a stop on the Underground Railroad?
  There is only one piece of documentary evidence. In 1917 Deborah Coffin Hussey Adams wrote her memoir. Born in 1848,...More Read more from Was Nantucket a stop on the Underground Railroad?
• Was there ever slavery on Nantucket?
  Yes. People were enslaved on Nantucket as late as 1775. In the Nantucket books of deeds there are seven deeds...More Read more from Was there ever slavery on Nantucket?
• History of Social Activism on Nantucket
  Social Activism in Nineteenth-Century Nantucket Before there were protest marches and sit-ins on live television, 24-hour news coverage, and social-media...More Read more from History of Social Activism on Nantucket