Arthur Cooper

Born into slavery in 1789 and fled from Virginia. It is unknown which routes of the Underground Railroad he used to escape, but he had to travel by boat to get to Nantucket. In October 1822, slave hunters arrived to recapture the family, but the island’s Quaker and black communities whisked them into hiding. Alfred Folger, a Nantucket magistrate, ruled that the Coopers could not be forcibly removed. Arthur Cooper went on to become a leader on Nantucket and eventually a founder of the Zion Methodist Episcopal church. He died in 1853.

Despite a history of activism and tolerance, life for black folks as expressed in local papers was uncomfortable and tinged by racism. Following the Civil War, as whaling came to an end, “black Nantucketers voted with their feet and left the island for homes with brighter horizons.”

1787

Bordered by New York’s Fishers Island to the southwest, Connecticut to the west, Massachusetts to the north, and the Atlantic to the south, Rhode Island had just enough access to both land and water to support American slavery. Ironically, new research by scholars has revealed that the same maritime routes used to bring ships of people to slavery in America also contributed to their escape. The towns comprising Cape Cod and the Islands, with their long history of supporting freedom and abolitionism, were geographically suited to aid in these escapes.

Much has been recorded about the Underground Railroad’s land-based system of people, places, and plans that allowed a still unknown number of former slaves to escape bondage. Sailing to Freedom: Maritime Dimensions of the Underground Railroad is a landmark treatise on the lesser heralded seaborne escapes. Edited by Dr. Timothy D. Walker, its 10 essays reconsider and contextualize how escapes were made along the East Coast. Published this past April, Walker’s book is receiving widespread interest.

Indigenous people (“Indians”) were the first slaves on Cape Cod. There’s a story that, in 1678, three natives broke into the Sandwich home of Zachariah Allen, prompting a court to decree them lifelong slaves to the Allens.

Following King Philip’s War, many natives were sold into slavery, one of whom was Thomas Wappatucke, found guilty of theft. The court ordered Wappatucke sold, with a portion of the funds reserved as compensation to the injured party.

The nearby Rhode Island General Assembly licensed racism and codified slavery in 1703: “If any negroes or Indians, either freemen, servants, or slaves, do walk in the street of the town of Newport, or any other town in this Colony, after nine of the clock of the night, without a certificate from their masters, or some English person of said family with them, or some lawfull excuse for the same, that it shall be lawfull for any person to take them up and deliver them to a Constable.”

Along with associating free black people and Native Americans with slaves, the law restricted their movements and further annotated them as potential criminals who should not be allowed out after dark. Blacks and Native Americans, free or enslaved, found after curfew were “to be whipped at the publick whipping post in said town, not exceeding fifteen stripes upon their naked backs.” Lastly, by allowing any white person to detain “any negroes

1793

The

1805

Converting to the abolitionist movement, by July of 1847 he began a long or Indians,” whiteness was legally endowed with privilege and power while people of color were legally identified as suspect and requiring supervision. In 1714, the General Assembly forbade enslaved people to board ferries alone, even under their masters’ direction, without a certificate of ownership carried by their master or mistress or some person in authority.

Connections to the Underground Railroad are largely undocumented on the Cape and Islands, secrecy being among the reasons. Historians note the region as a likely destination for maritime escapes, given the adjacency of abolitionist hotbeds New Bedford and Boston. “Cape Cod absolutely would have been a destination from the seaboard ports, which was one method of escape for runaway slaves,” says Donald Yacovone, senior associate editor at the Massachusetts Historical Society. “Because of the maritime connections, certainly Nantucket stands out, and I would not be at all surprised if seacoast towns on the Cape served fugitive slaves.”

While no one knows how many slaves might have traveled north via Cape Cod and the Islands, several accounts of underground activity have been kept alive in area towns. It must also be noted that the economics of slavery— excepting the business of James DeWolf—largely did not benefit Cape Cod and its people.

1839

Juneteenth Jubilee on Martha’s Vineyard

On June 17, 2021, Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday. Juneteenth (short for June Nineteenth) marks the day when federal troops arrived in Galveston, Texas, in 1865 to take control of the state and ensure that all enslaved people be freed. The troops’ arrival came a full two and a half years after the signing of the Emancipation Proclamation. Juneteenth honors the end of slavery in the United States and is considered the longestrunning African-American holiday.

To mark Juneteenth this year, a diverse group of Martha’s Vineyard businesses and organizations have created an islandwide “edu-tourism” weekend June 17–19. In addition to music, film, lectures, and tours, the jubilee will include social events relating to the many stories of freedom obtained by maritime means.

Venture Smith

“I

1860

On September 22, 1860, the Cape Cod AntiSlavery Convention in Harwich Exchange Hall insisted on “immediate and unconditional abolition.”

Kidnapped from and enslaved in West Africa, Venture Smith wrote an autobiography: A Narrative of the Life and Adventures of Venture, a Native of Africa: But Resident Above Sixty Years in the United States of America. Published in 1798, the story documents his life spent in capture on Fishers Island, Long Island, and in Connecticut and how he was able to purchase his and his family’s freedom.

MEET SEVEN ENTREPRENEURS SHAPING THE FABRIC OF DENNIS VILLAGE AND BEYOND.

BY JANICE RANDALL ROHLF PHOTOGRAPHS BY JULIA CUMES