Historic Nantucket, Early Fall 2022, Vol. 72 No. 2

Doing What’s Right

This year marks the two-hundredth anniversary of a defining moment in Nantucket history. On October 24, 1822, citizens of Nantucket worked together to stop Arthur and Mary Cooper and their four children from being kidnapped and returned to slavery in the American South. This remarkable event involved a large contingent of the island’s Black community, who turned out in force to shield the Coopers from slave hunters, and a smaller group of white Quakers, who intervened to hide the Coopers and force the agents to leave. The NHA is pleased to commemorate this act of communal bravery and righteousness with this special issue of Historic Nantucket, which contains two illuminating articles by historian Barbara Ann White.

Arthur Cooper (1789–1853) fled enslavement in Virginia and settled on Nantucket around 1820 with his wife Mary (1785–1826), whom he had met and married in the North. The Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 empowered enslavers to seek the return of “persons escaping from the service of their masters” and enjoined state authorities to assist such efforts. When slave hunters and a deputy marshal of Massachusetts arrived on island to claim the Coopers, the fami ly’s Black neighbors in the New Guinea neighborhood turned out en masse to bar the off-islanders from acting. “The whole body of blacks were so exceedingly incensed against the measure that they were with difficulty restrained from committing violence on the four strangers,” the Inquirer newspaper reported.

Soon white citizens arrived, members of the Society of Friends opposed to slavery, including Francis G. Macy (1793–1858), his brother Thomas M. Macy (1796–1838), their brother-in-law Oliver C. Gardner (1784–1860), Sylvanus Macy (1794–1846), William Mitchell (1791–1869), and town magistrate Alfred Folger (1793–1878). While Francis Macy and Folger stalled for time, questioning the strangers’ papers and authority, Thomas Macy, Oliver Gardner, and perhaps others spirited the Coopers into hiding. Gardner’s daughter Anna, six years old at the time, recounted later years:

“Judge Folger . . . held that the laws of Massachusetts did not recognize any persons as slaves, and that, as a magis trate, he should be compelled to arrest the agent and deputy marshal should they persist in molesting the fugitives. During this prolonged delay my father and Uncle Thomas stepped quietly around to the back window, and beckoning to the trembling victims, indicated that they were prepared to help them escape. Disguised in my father’s coat and Uncle Thomas’ broad-brimmed Quaker hat, Arthur Cooper had reached our back door before the wrangle in front of the house had so far subsided that the officers dare enter on their nefarious quest. When they did so, behold, vacan cy! They were defeated, balked. The fugitives had fled!”

Slave hunter Camillus Griffith, agent for the Alexandria, Virginia, slaveholder David Ricketts, admitted that the crowd “entirely defeated” him, much to his “mortification,” and he and his party soon left the island. The Coopers remained on island. Although Mary died a few years later, Arthur grew into an esteemed member of the community, active in social justice causes and in his church. The family’s story has become a proud part of Nantucket’s commu nity identity, particularly after a series of newspaper articles in 1878 brought the details of the day back to light, and the story began to be retold in island histories, memoirs, and guidebooks.

It is our hope that communal act of courage in autumn 1822 will continue to inspire us today to do what is needed and what is right for our neighbors and our community, and to continually work for justice in our society.

”When slave hunters and a deputy marshal of Massachusetts arrived on island to claim the Coopers, the family’s Black neighbors in the New Guinea neighborhood turned out en masse to bar the off-islanders from acting.“

Reflections

FROM THE BOARD PRESIDENT AND GOSNELL EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

As we settle into new routines on the other side of Labor Day, we reflect on what a busy and successful summer we enjoyed at the Nantucket Historical Association. We welcomed people of all ages to our exhibitions, programs and properties. The staff created a wide range of offerings— from summer camp programs to Washington’s Tent at the Mill, the stun ning Asian Treasures exhibition, the popular Cape Verde exhibition and oral histories, as well as a beautiful display of Lightship baskets at the Hadwen House. We featured lectures on a variety of topics, organized an extremely successful Nantucket By Design series, acquired important arti facts for the permanent collection, expanded our popular Decorative Arts classes, and paddled a hand-carved Mishoon at our Wampanoag Commu nity event at Children’s Beach. And now, as our Fall calendar is already filling up with exciting events, we eagerly look ahead to 2023 and beyond, as the NHA considers how we best carry out our mission in the future.

One thing is certain: At the heart of our activities will lie storytelling.

As the author, Tim O’Brien, has written, “Storytelling is the essential hu man activity. The harder the situation, the more essential it is.” Nantucket has a seemingly infinite supply of stories—a few of the most interesting and important of which you may read about in this issue of Historic Nan tucket. The island’s history and its rich stories are about more than whal ing. The diversity of experiences on this tiny sandspit need to be shared. By telling these stories…many stories—whether it be through exhibitions, programs, lectures, publications, oral histories, podcasts, or film—we can better understand this island community and how it continues to shift over time. We look forward to broadening the narrative as we preserve Nantucket’s remarkable history…doing so is essential.

Board of Trustees

Annabelle Fowlkes, President

Susan Blount, Vice President

Carla McDonald, Vice President

John Flannery, Treasurer

Sarah Alger, Clerk

Nancy Abbey

Patricia Anathan

Lucinda Ballard

Stacey Bewkes

Wylie Collins

Amanda Cross Cam Gammill Graham Goldsmith

Ashley Gosnell Mody

Robert Greenspon

Wendy Hudson

Carl Jelleme

Kathryn Ketelsen, Friends of the NHA Representative

Valerie Paley

Marla Sanford

Denise Saul, Friends of the NHA Representative

Sara Schwartz

Janet Sherlund, Trustee Emerita Carter Stewart Melinda Sullivan Michael Sweeney Jason Tilroe

Alisa A. Wood

Ex Officio

Niles D. Parker, Gosnell Executive Director

HISTORIC NANTUCKET (ISSN 0439-2248) is published by the Nantucket Historical Association, 15 Broad Street, Nantucket, Massachusetts. Periodical postage paid at Nantucket, MA, and additional entry offices.

POSTMASTER: Send address changes to Historic Nantucket, P.O. Box 1016, Nantucket, MA 02554–1016; (508) 228–1894; fax: (508) 228–5618, info@nha.org. For information visit www.nha.org. ©2022 by the Nantucket Historical Association.

Editor: Ashley Santos Designer: Amanda Quintin Design

Cover:

Portrait of Arthur Cooper, 1825-1835

Sarah (Sally) Gardener

Annabelle Fowlkes President, Board of Trustees

Niles Parker Gosnell Executive Director

Oil on canvas, 24 ¾ x 20 3/8”

Gift of Arthur Cooper’s daughter, Eliza Ann King, 1899.131.1.

all photos by nha staff unless otherwise noted.

Incoming Trustees

Stacey Bewkes

Stacey Bewkes and her husband have become full time residence of Nantucket in August of 2020 after being summer residents for four decades. As someone involved in the world of design, she has always been inspired by the island’s dedication to preserving its history of culture, architecture and craftsmanship and in particular the NHA. Since the inception of Nantucket by Design in 2015, she has helped the NHA in various capacities, from securing luminaries to speaking, chairing the luncheon, moderating the opening keynote, creating original video segments on relevant topics for the NHA to share, helping to secure auction items, writing about the event for the local paper, and in general helping to spread the word through her website and social media. She is proud to co-chair the event with Olivia Charney in 2022. She received her B.A. in Art History from Brown University. She was the Art Director of Simon & Schuster from 1976 to 1993; founded Quintessence; wrote multiple books; and co-founded Annelli Collection. Stacey has four children and has served on the Parents Committee at Deerfield Academy and the Freshman Parents Committee at Duke University.

Sara Schwartz

Sara Schwartz is the President of Schwartz Hannum PC, a law firm she founded in 1995. Sara graduated from Concord Academy, and is a cum laude graduate of both Yale College and Harvard Law School. She began her legal career at Ropes & Gray in Boston, after completing a federal court clerkship with The Honorable William Young in Boston. Schwartz Hannum PC represents hundreds of employers and educators across the U.S., including several dozen clients on Nantucket. In her non-profit law practice, Sara serves as a trusted advisor to independent schools, colleges, hospitals, museums, private clubs, and social services agencies. Sara began spending summers on Nantucket in the 1980’s, when she worked at Straight Wharf, Provisions, and elsewhere, and she has been visiting Nantucket annually ever since. Sara and her husband, Will Hannum, a native, were married on Nantucket, and have had a house in ‘Sconset since 2010 (which has been their primary home for the past several years). Their five children (now ages 21-31) have all enjoyed summers on Nantucket throughout their childhoods, and continue to return for visits as often as their busy lives allow. The NHA has a special place in Sara’s heart. As an American History major at Yale, with a lifelong fascination for American history, Sara has always enjoyed her work with the NHA, visits to the Whaling Museum (especially Festival of the Trees), and visits to other NHA sites. Sara’s primary hobby is photographing the historic parts of the Island.

Michael Sweeney

Michael Sweeney has worked and lived on Nantucket for just over 20 years. He is married to Athalyn and they have two wonderful children – Áille and Lochlán. He received his B.Tech and B.Ed degrees from the University of Limerick in Ireland in Materials and Wood Construction Technology. In 2011, he started M. Sweeney Construction Inc. which specializes in high end residential construction and, the company has completed a number of historical restorations in Nantucket and ‘Sconset. He currently serves on the board of the Nantucket Preservation Trust and has helped out with volunteer work at the Garden Club, Fairwinds Counseling Service, Nantucket Triathlon and Half Marathon and various other running and cycling endeavors of which he is also a keen participant.

Outgoing Trustees

Chip Carver

Chip Carver joined the NHA Board of Trustees in 2012 and served as board president from 2020-2022. Throughout his tenure, he was chair of both the Development Committee and the Inclusion Task Force. He was a member of the Executive, Budget, Audit, Finance and Campaign Steering Committees. Chip helped guide the NHA through the pandemic and led the charge on a nationwide search to hire a new Gosnell Executive Director. He has made a tremendous impact on the organization during a pivotal time while being a generous supporter of annual giving, campaigns, membership and events.

Olivia Charney

Olivia Charney joined the NHA board in 2014. She has been a volunteer for the NHA’s major fundraising events throughout the past twenty years. She has chaired the Antiques & Design Show, and has co-chaired Nantucket By Design this year and will continue in that role next year. During her tenure, she has been a member of the following committees: Development, Communications & Marketing, and Housing & Properties. Olivia’s generous support of the annual fund, campaigns, membership and events through the years has been truly appreciated.

Britt Newhouse

Britt Newhouse served on the NHA Board from 2019-2022. He was a significant member of the Audit & Risk Committee, and has generously supported the NHA through annual giving, campaigns, membership, and events.

Finn Wentworth

Finn Wentworth served on the NHA Board since 2014. Throughout his tenure, he was a member of the following committees: Audit & Risk, Development, Campaign Steering, and Housing & Properties. He successfully led the Annual Appeal campaign for several years. He has been a generous supporter of the NHA through annual giving, restricted gifts, campaigns, membership, and events.

Kelly Williams

Kelly Williams joined the NHA Board in 2014 and served as President from 2017-2020. She was Vice President of the Board prior to her presidency, served on the Executive Committee, co-chaired the Development Committee, and was a member of the Com mittee on Trustees & Governance and the Winter Show Advisory Committee. She is also a member of the Friends of the NHA. Through her connections with the Smithsonian American Art Museum, she assisted the NHA with presenting the traveling exhibition Modern American Realism: Highlights from the Sara Roby Foundation Collection. She has generously supported the NHA through annual giving, campaigns, membership, and events. She and her husband, Andrew Forsyth, spearheaded the initiative to create a Fine Arts Wing to further the NHA’s mission of showcasing important stories of Nantucket.

David Worth

David Worth joined the NHA Board in 2014. During his term, he was Vice President of the Board, chair of both the Audit & Risk Committee and the Development Committee, and a member of the following committees: Finance, Investment, ad hoc Strategic Planning, and Housing & Properties. He served as the Interim Executive Director in 2016 and 2017. His generous support of the annual fund, campaigns, membership and events through the years has been truly appreciated.

“ The headline used the word ’kidnapping,‘ indicating that the editor, Samuel H. Jenks, deemed the attempted recapture of the Coopers unlawful....”

How an Island Community Protected the Coopers

Two hundred years ago, on October 24, 1822, the family of Arthur Cooper narrowly escaped being dragged back to slavery in Virginia by bounty hunter Camillus Griffith. It Inquirer’s coverage of local news the following week. The headline used the word “kidnap ping,” indicating that the editor, Samuel H. Jenks, deemed the attempted recapture of the Coopers unlawful, despite the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793 that required states to assist in the return of people “held to service or labor.” Massachu setts, however, had made the process of enslavers trying to reclaim escapees more difficult than most states, mak ing Massachusetts a frequent destination for those fleeing Inquirer noted that the law was “fraught with such monstrous injustice” as it would condemn the free-born wife and “above all, their children, born in a

The 1858 Map of the Counties of Barnstable, Dukes, and Nantucket, Massachusetts by H.F. Walling includes a cadastral inset of Nantucket, showing the location of Arthur Cooper’s home on Angola Street and the distance the family would have traveled to Prison Lane (now Vestal Street).

NHA Collection

Arthur Cooper was one of four targets for Griffith, all of whom had fled to New Bedford on the sloop Regulator between 1815 and 1818. Arthur Cooper had been known as “George” when he was enslaved. It is not clear if his wife, Mary, was freeborn or formerly enslaved as the sources are contra dictory, but Griffith claimed that she was one of the people for whom he was searching.

Arthur Cooper moved to Nantucket in 1820, where he would have found it easy to find work as the island’s whaling industry was growing steadily. The Black community was also growing with around 274 people out of a total population of 7,266. The Coopers rented a home on Angola Street in the area known as New Guinea, where the Black community was establishing itself.

Vigilance was ever-present in the Black community; there was nowhere in the country where fugitives were truly safe. The arrival of Griffith and his party was quickly noticed in the small community. The Black community gathered in the early morning at the Cooper house determined to prevent the family from being arrested at all costs. The Inquirer noted the crowd of men, women, and children “were so exceedingly incensed.” The situation was tense, with the potential to become violent.

The article provides no details as to how a few white Nantucket men arrived on the scene or who they were. In fact, the only name in the entire article is that of a deputy marshal of Massachusetts named Bass; the reporter made jokes at his expense, writing that “Bass was no salmon” and that he had been “smoked” by some of the crowd. But readers knew who the participants were. The reference to a “magistrate” was a giveaway that he was the well-known Alfred Folger. If the writer was trying to protect everyone involved for possibly breaking the law, it was thinly veiled and easily discovered.

Arthur Cooper, circa 1830, by Sarah “Sally” Gardner. NHA Collection. Gift of Eliza Ann King, 1899.131.1.

Later accounts fill in the details, gleaned from a va riety of newspapers, an autobiography, and other historical records. The white men were all members of the Society of Friends, the majority related to each other. William Mitchell, the father of astronomer Maria Mitchell, was a participant. He credited Oliver C. Gardner with engineering the Coopers’ escape. Others involved were Gardner’s brothers-in-law, Francis G. and Thomas MacKrel Macy. These men all lived on Prison Lane, now Vestal Street.

It is easy to imagine the fear that gripped the Cooper family on that fateful day when Camillus Griffith and three men appeared at their front door to arrest them and drag them to a boat in the harbor. The young couple had four children, ranging from ages three to thirteen. In addition, Mary was nine months pregnant with their fifth child. As they scrambled out a back window and across the fields, what did they think were their odds of escaping? The noise from the crowd of at least a hundred, if not over two hundred, angry people trying to prevent their capture must have added to the tension and fear. How long did it take them to scurry, probably to a home on Prison Lane, over a quarter mile away?

An account written five decades later and published in the March 16, 1878, issue of the Inquirer and Mirror described the scene. Reprinted from the New Bedford Standard, it quoted Camillus Griffith from files at the State House, written shortly after the incident. The bounty hunter stated that his party of four was in the act of removing the Cooper family when “a large assemblage” gathered around the house “and seemed to set us at defiance.” He sent men to guard the back of the house, but said he became alarmed by the “threats of the mob.” So he called the men back to rejoin him at the front of the house for their own safety. One wonders how seriously the Massachusetts lawman, Mr. Bass, who had been assigned the task by a judge, took his job. Might they passively have thwarted Camillus Griffith from arresting the Coopers? Maybe he turned a blind eye to the party of escapees that included at least eight people. It seems possible from the wording of the 1822 article, which noted that Bass acted “against his conscience; for he declared that he disliked slavery exceedingly!” How and when had Bass made his views known?

Griffith described Sylvanus Macy and Alfred Folger questioning his documents, query ing whether they might be forged. He noted that their delaying tactics had allowed the Coopers to escape, with Arthur himself disguised in a Quaker coat and hat. The bounty hunter said that Sylvanus Macy told him that “they wanted those colored people to man their whale ships and would not suffer them to be carried back to bondage,” thus sug gesting a financial motive for the Quakers’ intervention. He testified that Alfred Folger

“Vigilance was ever-present in the Black community; there was nowhere in the country where fugitives were truly safe.”

“observed to me that the laws of their State did not recognize any persons as slaves, and if I attempted to molest these people or remove them, he should consider it his duty as a magistrate to arrest me and my party.”

That was the end. The Coopers had escaped, the community of neighbors had succeed ed, and the white men had engineered a successful escape. Griffith concluded, “I had the mortification to be entirely defeated.”

The white men who defied the bounty hunters and protected the Coopers were not motivated by money. They were motivated by their membership in the Society of Friends, the Quakers. The plight of a family undoubtedly known to them had elicited their sympathy and outrage. They also had taken account of the situation on Angola Street, knowing it could easily have become violent, and worked to defuse it.

The Quakers’ historic stance on enslavement is complicated and not straightforward. As the abolition movement gained traction over the next decades, most Quakers chose to remain uninvolved. Some abolitionists, such as Anna Gardner, whose family sheltered the Coopers, were disowned for their public involvement in politics; many joined the Unitarian church. But those developments came considerably later than the attempted kidnapping of the Cooper family.

Ambiguities about the attempted kidnapping persist, and details of the story are unclear. Not every account may reflect historical truth, particularly with the passage of time, as most accounts were written years later. We do not know, for example, the length of time that the Coopers were in hiding, nor the details of their hiding places. Anna Gardner wrote in her autobiography that Cooper “and his family were concealed for weeks in our attic and cellar,” implying that the Gardner house was the only place the Coopers stayed. That is certainly possible. But it is also possible that the family moved around. Several sources, for example, maintain that the Coopers were hidden for a time at the house of Alfred Folger. The people of New Guinea must have actively assisted in keeping the family’s whereabouts secret. There was no certainty that Griffith wouldn’t reappear with a larger force, lending credence to the narrative that the family remained hidden for a considerable amount of time. What is clear is that Mary Cooper gave birth to her fifth child, Arthur Jr., less than a week after their frightening escape.

The initial news story included the information that the Coopers “remain concealed among the vast subterranean vaults which have been made by peat-diggers!” This was a deliberate falsehood written to throw the bounty hunters off the scent as such vaults did not exist.

Almost the entire Black community rose in opposition that morning to the threat, but it is difficult to document which individuals might have led the community’s resistance. Perhaps there were no leaders and it was a spontaneous response, since there was little

“

The people of New Guinea must have actively assisted in keeping the family’s whereabouts secret. There was no certainty that Griffith wouldn’t reappear with a larger force.”

Arthur Cooper was an active member of the Nantucket community. His signature here is from an 1845 petition in favor of integrating the island’s public schools. Digital Archive of Massachusetts Anti-Slavery and Anti-Segregation Petitions, Massachusetts Archives, Passed Acts

time to plan. Yet, this was an active community with leaders in its midst. For example, that same year leaders in the community organized a Sabbath school to educate at least thirty Black children. Three of those children were probably Eliza Ann, Cyrus, and Randolph Cooper. Leaders in the Black community also organized a church in a room that year, possibly in the Second Congregational Church, before building the African Meeting House two years later.

Besides doing manual labor, Cooper was employed as a shipping agent, furnishing sailors to the whaleships of George and Joseph Starbuck. In 1833, he was able to buy his house on Angola Street. He was one of the three founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, built on upper York Street in 1832, and an elder there for the rest of his life.

Arthur Cooper, unsurprisingly, became an activist in the abolition movement; he chaired a meeting against the colonization of Black Americans in Africa. The church where he served as an elder was a meeting spot for reform movements. His name appears on multiple petitions held in the state archives championing civil rights and justice. During the struggle to integrate the Nantucket public schools in 1842, he ran unsuccessfully for the school committee alongside nine other Black men.

After Mary died in 1826, Arthur married Lucinda Gordon, a woman who had been captured at the age of eighteen in Africa and who was eventually sold to someone in Newport, Rhode Island. It is not known how or when she became free or came to the island. Arthur Cooper died at age 64 in 1853, his second wife outliving him by many years. They are buried in a family plot in the Historic Coloured Cemetery on Mill Hill.

The Cooper Family

This family Bible, donated by Eliza Ann King, a daughter of Arthur and Mary Cooper, lists the birth dates of the parents and their five children. Family Bibles were often used on Nantucket and elsewhere to record births, mar riages, and deaths in the days before government vital statistics were consistently gathered. These books are particularly valuable resources for African American genealogists, whose ancestry trails often go cold prior to the Civil War. NHA Collection. Gift of Eliza Ann King, 1899, acc. no. 1317

Black Activism Before the Civil War

By Barbara Ann White

The Black community on Nantucket protested and mobilized against racism in a wide variety of ways before the Civil War. Their campaigns are familiar to protest movements today. Par ticipated in by men and women, many whose names are unknown, their activism has been overlooked.

O

ne goal of the Black community was to educate their children, cognizant that education was the key to a better life for generations to come. Many were all too familiar with the problem of being illiterate. Nantucket was slow to establish public schools; hence, leaders in the Black community sought funding on their own, reaching off island. They asked the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel Among the Indians and Oth ers (SPG) to fund a school, hopeful because it had estab lished a school on Martha’s Vineyard under the super vision of Frederick Baylies, a white man. Essex Boston, Jeffrey Summons, and Peter Boston asked the SPG for funding based on their Wampanoag heritage, writing, “there are among the coloured people of this place re mains of Nantucket Indians, and that nearly every fam ily in our village are partly descended from the original inhabitants of this and neighboring places.” Their let ter was successful, and in 1823 the SPG sent Baylies to establish a school for the Black community, but which included a few white children, probably held at the Second Congregational Church.

View of the African Meeting House, circa 1880. F3970

But the people of New Guinea wanted a school in the neighborhood under their ownership and supervision. The African Meeting House, at the corner of York and Pleasant Streets and built in 1824, played a central role. It was used as a school, a church, and place to con gregate for a variety of purposes. When the land was deeded to the Meeting House, it was stipulated that the

trustees would maintain a schoolhouse—“kept in it for ever.” When the town established public schools in 1826, the African School was absorbed into the town’s budget.

Fear was ever present in the Black community, espe cially for those who had fled enslavement. Federal laws supported their return, and Black leaders organized to ensure their safety. Free Blacks were also in danger of being kidnapped and transported to the South when they ventured off island. Black sailors faced danger whenever they docked in a Southern port. The commu nity was alert and ready to resist.

The most famous incidence of protecting fugitives from being returned to the South occurred in 1822, when bounty hunters came to Nantucket seeking Arthur and Mary Cooper along with their children, all born in the North. When the men showed up at the Coopers’ house on Angola Street, a defiant group was waiting for them to prevent the family’s seizure. They sought help from several prominent white men known to be sympathet ic to their cause. Magistrate Alfred Folger delayed the bounty hunters by engaging them in a dialogue about the legality and authority of their documents. This gave the frightened family of six time to be spirited out through the back of the house disguised as Quakers. They were hidden for several weeks at the home of Oliver and Han nah Gardner on Vestal Street, where Mary Cooper gave birth to a son. Anna Gardner, age six, never forgot how frightened the Coopers were when they were hiding in her house. She went on to teach at the African School as well as in freedmen’s schools in the South during and after the Civil War.

Almost three decades later, the Compromise of 1850 included a stricter fugitive slave law. Alarmed, the peo ple of New Guinea organized a vigilance committee to protect fugitives on Nantucket from being targets.

Unsurprisingly, Black Nantucketers were involved in the Underground Railroad. An article in 1874 in the San Francisco newspaper The Elevator paid tribute upon the death of Lewis Berry, writing that he had been part of a team on Nantucket with Captain Absalom F. Boston, Captain Edward J. Pompey, and “Messrs. Godfrey, Har ris, Young and Borden,” along with five men in New Bedford, a city renowned as a haven for fugitives. Black people exercised rights embodied in the First Amendment to further voice their complaints and concerns, including the right to petition. Dozens of petitions were submitted by Nantucketers during the decades before the Civil War. The majority were sub mitted to the Massachusetts legislature, largely because of the “gag” rule passed by Congress prohibiting peti tions regarding issues involving slavery. It was a form of protest that included men and women, black and white, children and adults.

A petition signed only by Black Nantucketers was sub mitted by “Absalom Boston and 53 others” in 1839. It called upon the legislature “immediately to repeal all laws in this state which make any distinction among its inhabitants on account of color.” Of particular interest is the signature of 15-year-old Eunice Ross, whose suc cessful examination for admission to Nantucket High School two years later set off a six-year dispute about school integration that split the island community.

Most petitions were signed by a cross section of reform ers and abolitionists with signatures including Barneys, Gardners, and Macys as well as Pompeys, Rosses, and Bostons. One issue which prompted a number of peti tions concerned adding territories, such as Florida and Texas, to the United States because it would increase the power of the slave states in Congress and open up more land to human bondage.

”

A petition signed only by Black Nantucketers... it called upon the legislature immediately to repeal all laws in this state which make any distinction among its inhabitants on account of color.“

The largest petition from the island was submitted in 1839 when an astonishing 773 Nantucketers pleaded for the abolition of the slave trade in Washington, D.C. Petitions related to discrimination included one in 1842 which protested inequities on the railroads “on the sole difference of Colour.”

The issue, however, that spurred the most petitions con cerned Nantucket’s long refusal to admit Eunice Ross to the high school and the restriction of Black children to a one-room schoolhouse built on York Street. (The Afri can Meeting House denied the town use of their build ing once the town’s segregation policy became clear.)

Tempers flared when the school committee, dominated for one year by abolitionists, ordered the schools inte grated against the explicit vote of the annual town meet ing. The integration precipitated a backlash, and the next year, 1844, segregationists were overwhelmingly

The next step took the issue to the Massachusetts State House.

“Edward J. Pompey and 104 others” from the Black community submitted the first of four petitions to the legislature testifying to the urgent need for a law ensur ing all children an equal right to public education. The Pompey petition claimed that conditions on the island were similar to the “insults and outrages upon their rights” that could be found in a jail in South Carolina. They wrote that their children needed protection from “School Committees and those who assemble in town meetings.” Two petitions from white Nantucketers in support of the Pompey petition followed. The fourth petition submitted in support of integration was from Eunice Ross, who told the story of the refusal of the town to admit her to the high school even though she had been “found amply qualified.”

elected to the committee. Within a week, Black students were publicly ejected from the two grammar schools and escorted back to the school on York Street.

One of the boldest examples of Black activism occurred in response to their children’s expulsion. Rather than send the children back to the segregated York Street School, the Black community boycotted the school system entirely, a very early example of that method of protest. The boycott of almost two years was so suc cessful that it left the York Street School vacant, forcing the teacher to give “lessons to bare walls and empty benches.” The school committee reluctantly sent white children to the school to keep it open. Volunteers taught some Black children at a rented schoolroom. As the boy cott dragged into its second year, students trickled back in as parents did not want to sacrifice their children’s learning. It seemed that the town had won the battle to segregate the schools.

Their petitions were successful, and Massachusetts passed a ground-breaking law in 1845 guaranteeing the right for children to attend any public school. The hard work of fighting the town had borne fruit. Those petitions were not the first time that Black Nan tucketers exercised their rights to those embodied in the First Amendment—freedom of speech, press, and assembly. In February 1842, for example, a commu nity meeting at the Zion Methodist Episcopal church was called to protest school segregation. A 1,622-word Address to the School Committee and Other Inhabitants of Nantucket was composed. The address stated that Mas sachusetts laws did not recognize racial distinction in education. Printed in the Inquirer, the address referred to their community as “oppressed,” writing that the school issue was one of other “wounds” it had suffered for “some years.” They expressed a strong desire to be part of the mainstream as “citizens of this great repub lic; our veins are full of republican blood,” and ended

”One of the boldest examples of Black activism occurred in response to their children’s expulsion.“

The first motion to integrate Nantucket schools at an annual town meeting, made by Edward M. Gardner on June 3, 1840. His motion was “negatived.” Nantucket Town Records.

with the hope that the time was “not too far distance when…this republic will proceed to make its distinc tions in society on just and reasonable grounds, not according to the color of skin.” This example was the longest letter to the newspapers, but there were others written over the years about a variety of injustices.

The Black community organized political organizations which paralleled those in the community at large. They organized the first abolitionist group, the African Soci ety at least as early as 1829—its aim to work to end slav ery and gain equal rights for all.

The white community organized abolitionist groups not long afterward. The women of Nantucket organized an integrated group at least by 1841. That year, the Nantuck et Women’s Anti-Slavery Society stopped meeting at the North Congregational Church because the church had put “impossible” conditions on the group by requiring it to ban its Black members. The women offered a com promise by suggesting that the Black women sit sepa rately, but that compromise was rejected by the church. The women’s organization wrote, “our object is to im prove and elevate…not to lend our aid…in oppression.”

There were two Black churches in New Guinea, both gathering places for political meetings. The earliest reference to “a colored church” was in 1821, when the Inquirer reported a room had been “fitted up for the purpose.” The African Meeting House served as a Bap tist church until 1888. The Zion Methodist Episcopal Church was built in 1832, located on what is now Upper York Street, down the hill from the windmill. In 1838, a letter from an anonymous white man described what he observed on the Fourth of July at that church. An an ti-slavery speaker, he wrote, spoke to about 150 people that day. The author noted that Independence Day was no cause for celebration—“no peace, no liberty for the colored man in these Independent States...”

Black men also ran for political office, and, while none were elected, several persisted over several years, put ting their names forth. The two most influential citizens of New Guinea were the whaling captains Absalom F. Boston and Edward J. Pompey, who ran for various of fices. The first instance was when Absalom Boston ran for the Board of Selectmen in 1839, earning just one vote. He also ran that year to be one of 20 fire wardens from a field of 52, again garnering one vote.

BLACK ACTIVISM

Segments of the 1843 petition to the Massachusetts legislature from Nantucket’s Black population protesting segregation on the state’s railroads. Digital Archive of Massachusetts Anti-Slavery and AntiSegregation Petitions, Massachusetts Archives, House Unpassed Legislation, 1843. Docket 1230A, SC1/Series 230, Petition of Nathaniel A. Borden. Harvard Dataverse, V 5.

In 1842, when the school committee was in the hands of hard-line segregationists, an astounding 56 men ran for the 13 positions. Ten were Black—including Edward Pompey who got 55 votes. James Ross, father of Eunice, and eight other Black men earned votes in the single digits.

The following year, Absalom Boston, Edward Pompey, and James Ross ran unsuccessfully to be one of the town assessors. In November of the same year, Edward Pompey received 39 votes to represent Nantucket in the state Senate. (Maria Mitchell’s father was elected with 638 votes).

Finally, the Black community availed itself of the court system, most significantly in 1845, when it seemed that school integration would be forthcoming after the pas sage of the new law. However, Nantucket chose to ignore the law. Fortunately, the law granted parents the right to sue their towns for damages, which is exactly what Ab salom Boston did, filing suit on behalf of his daughter,

Phebe Ann, one of the children who had been ejected from a grammar school the previous year. In September 1845, a special town meeting convened to decide how to proceed against the suit and voted to defend itself. A month later the suit was recorded in the records of the Court of Common Pleas which noted that the case had been transferred to another court. Meanwhile, schools continued to be segregated.

At the next annual town meeting, the school committee argued that it was improper “to agitate this exciting ques tion” until the Boston case was decided. But, the town re-elected abolitionists to the school committee and the schools were re-integrated within one week, putting the issue at rest and eliminating the need for the suit.

These examples provide ample evidence that Black Nantucketers were politically active and availed them selves of multiple strategies to advance their quest for abolition and civil rights.

ARTHUR COOPER MEMORIAL

The Museum of African American History (MAAH), Nantucket Land Bank, and the Town of Nantucket Historical Commission unveiled a memorial plaque dedicated to Arthur Cooper in August 2021. The memorial, a 18” x 20” bronze plaque mounted on a natural boulder, is a gift donated by a local Nantucket resident and rests in a park near the site of Cooper’s Angola Street home for the public to visit.

NOTES & HIGHLIGHTS

Properties

Property Investment Projects Accomplishments

This past January the Board of Trustees initiated a project to invest over $2 million in our Historic Properties and other facilities over the next 24 months, and we are pleased to share the substantial progress that has been made within the first part of this year.

Some of the most notable completed projects have been the installation of a new interior handicap elevator in the Whaling Museum Candle Factory. Other completed projects include installing a new insulated slate roof on the Whal ing Museum’s Candle Factory, new fencing at the Thomas Macy House, sewer updates at the Research Library and Quaker Meeting House, security/fire protection, and re-roofing Hadwen House and the Gosnold Collections Center. Painting projects across the NHA campus were completed this past spring, including the Fire Hose Cart House, Hadwen House fence, the Old Mill vane shafts, Candle Factory exterior trim, Oldest House interior, and the Whaling Museum rooftop observation deck, and the Discovery Center building exterior.

These projects have been generously supported by grant funding and the support of NHA donors. The NHA would like to give special recognition to the Community Preservation Committee, which has cumulatively given $1.5 million in grant funds to the NHA for capital projects over the past 20 years.

Property investment projects still to come include exterior restoration of masonry and window replacements at the Research Library, renovations and security upgrades to the Gosnold Collections Center, and ADA and HVAC updates to the 1800 House.

Education

High School Scholarship Recipients

Every year, the NHA gives out awards to graduating seniors from Nantucket High School. The Nantucket Historical Association Scholarship is awarded to graduating seniors of Nantucket High School who are pursuing a four-year college degree and have also demonstrated a commitment to Nantucket’s community through volunteer time and initiatives.

Caroline Correia has lived her entire life on Nantucket, being raised by her parents Stephanie and John Correia. She will be attending the University of Rhode Island this fall, studying Fashion Merchandising and Textile Marketing.

Caiden Shea’s love for history took him to the NHA where he participat ed in We All Speak Moby Dick, a program for high school students that taught a wide range of skills designed to expose our multi-cultural community to Melville’s classic novel. Caiden also appeared in the Theatre Workshop’s annual stage production of Moby Dick Rehearsed as The Masthead in Gosnold Hall. He will attend Villanova University to study business and communication and will explore new ways to connect his island home with the wider world.

Maclaine Willett was born and raised on Nantucket. While attending Nantucket High School, she wrote for Veritas and became an editor-in-chief senior year. She will be attending Boston College this fall, and is undecided on a major right now, but is leaning towards English with a concentration in journalism.

Programs

This summer was buzzing at the NHA!

The Whaling Museum and Hadwen House saw over 40,000 visitors this summer. Our Historic Sites were back open with FREE admis sion, and we saw over 4,000 visitors this summer. Weekly Handson History craft activities at the Discovery Center welcomed over 600 children. Our Members enjoyed 1 Annual Meeting, 3 Exhibition Openings, and 10 Member Evening Tours, as an exclusive member benefit. We taught over 35 Decorative Arts workshops at the 1800 House and Greater Light. We welcomed over 1,582 attendees to FREE community programs, including Washington’s Tent at the Old Mill, Wampanoag Immersion Experience Day, lectures, Hanna in the Garden, and more!

DIGITIZATION

Library

50 Collections Digitized in 2022

As part of the NHA’s goal to digitize 100% of its collection, we are excited to report the Research Library team completed digitization of its 50th collection of 2022 this past August. As we work toward this goal, collections priori tized for digitization in 2022 were selected based on research and exhibition need. Collections of genealogical data, business records, and ephemera are all popular with researchers, while digitizing the cased photograph collection helped identify relevant objects for exhibit while reducing handling of these fragile items.

This work is made possible thanks to a visionary gift from Connie and Tom Cigarran. The NHA Board of Trustees has also matched their gift, which allowed our staff to increase their digitization capacity this year.

[C209]

group of four Quaker ladies

portrait),

[MS240] Henry B. and Helen B. W. Worth Genealogy Record

FACES OF THE NHA

Get to know our new staff!

Jocelyn Wong Community Outreach Coordinator

A Southern California native, Jocelyn studied art history at Wellesley College. After graduating, she lived in Shanghai to research contemporary landscape paintings through a Fulbright Fellowship. She then moved to the UK to receive her Master’s in art history. After graduate school, she worked for four years at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA). Jocelyn is thrilled to join the NHA team and have an opportunity to serve Nantucket’s breadth of communities. She is a passionate equestrian and swing dancer and spends her spare time baking treats for her neighbors or scoping out the plethora of cultural offerings across the island!

Maura Wendelken, Education Manager

Maura is an artist and educator from Nantucket. She earned her BFA in Photography from the Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. MassArt’s multi-disciplinary approach to its program has influenced her work in education. Over the past nine years, she has worked in education on the island, most recently at the Nantucket Public Schools and the Artists Association of Nantucket. As an artist and educator, her greatest inspirations are the nature and community on the island and her family.

nantucket by design

As the NHA’s premier summer fundraiser, Nantucket by Design celebrates the island’s unique influence on American design with an engaging Keynote Speaker, a partner ship with The Nantucket Summer Antiques Show, a Design Panel, and so much more!

We preserve and interpret the history of Nantucket through our programs, collections, and properties, in order to promote the island's significance and foster an appreciation of it among all audiences.

Katie

1894 Founders Society

Through this Society, the Board of Trustees recognizes the cumulative giving by individuals who assist with the NHA’s annual operating needs. 1894 Founders Society members contrib ute $3,000 and up toward the annual fund, membership, and fundraising events, as well as to exhibitions and collections, plus scholarship and educational programs. Their generous support is greatly appreciated and welcomed by the community.

$50,000 and above

Julie Jensen Bryan & Robert Bryan

Anne DeLaney & Chip Carver

Amanda B. Cross

Mark H. Gottwald

$25,000 to $49,999

Susan Blount & Richard Bard Deborah & Bruce Duncan

Kelly Williams & Andrew Forsyth

William A. Furman

Barbara & Graham Goldsmith Victoria McManus & John McDermott

Diane & Britt Newhouse

Ella W. Prichard

Laura & Bob Reynolds Helen & Chuck Schwab Melinda & Paul Sullivan

$10,000 to $24,999

Nancy & Douglas Abbey Elizabeth & Lee Ainslie

Gale H. Arnold

Patricia Nilles & Hunter Boll Cornelius C. Bond Maureen & Edward Bousa Anne Marie & Doug Bratton Christy & Bill Camp Anita & Delos Cosgrove Mary Jane & Glenn Creamer John M. DeCiccio

Robert Ebert

Tracy & John Flannery

Annabelle & Gregory Fowlkes

Susanne & Zenas Hutcheson

Cecelia Joyce Johnson

Diane Pitt & Mitch Karlin

Diane & Art Kelly

Jean Doyen de Montaillou & Michael Kovner

Margaret Hallowell & Stephen Langer

Paula & Bruce Lilly Sharon & Frank Lorenzo Bonnie & Peter McCausland Ashley & Jeffrey McDermott Ashley Gosnell Mody & Darshan Mody

Mary & Al Novisssimo Margaret & John Ruttenberg Catherine Ebert & Karl Saberg Denise & Andrew Saul Janet & Rick Sherlund Georgia Snell Kathleen & Robert Stansky Harriet & Warren Stephens

Merrielou & Ned† Symes Jason A. Tilroe

Louise E. Turner Kim & Finn Wentworth Paul E. Willer

Alisa & Alastair Wood

$5,000 to $9,999

Anonymous

Patricia & Thomas Anathan Mary-Randolph Ballinger Peter A. Barresi

Deborah C. Belichick

Jody & Brian Berger Donald A. Burns Meredith & Gene Clapp Beth A. Dempsey

Elizabeth Miller & James Dinan

Barbara & Robert Friedman

Suzanne & David Frisbie Karyn M. Frist Julie & Cam Gammill Robert I. Gease Nan & Chuck† Geschke Claire & Robert Greenspon Gordon Gund Amy & Brett Harsch Barbara & Amos Hostetter Wendy Hubbell Joy H. Ingham Carl Jelleme Cynthia & Evan Jones Jill & Stephen Karp Carolyn B. Kelly Anne & Todd Knutson Coco & Arie Kopelman Helen & Will Little

Debra & Vincent Maffeo Holly & Mark Maisto Ronay & Richard Menschel Franci Neely

Carter & Chris Norton Liz & Jeff Peek Gary McBournie & William Richards

Sharon & Frank Robinson Linda T. Saligman Mary G. Farland & J. Donald Shockey

Kate Lubin & Glendon Sutton Ann & Peter Taylor Phoebe & Bobby Tudor Liz & Geoff Verney Susan W. Weatherley Leslie Forbes & David Worth

Kirsten & Peter Zaffino

Carlyn & Jon Zehner

$3,000 to $4,999 Susan D. Akers

Lindsey & Merrick Axel Janet & Sam Bailey Carol & Harold Baxter Pam & Max Berry Susan & Bill Boardman

Laura & Bill Buck Olivia & Felix Charney Jenny & Wylie Collins Kim & Alan Hartman

Catherine & Richard Herbst Wendy & Randy Hudson Mary Ann & Paul Judy Alison & Owen King Helen Lynch

Alice & J. Thomas Macy

Mr. & Mrs. Peter deF. Millard Laura & William Paulsen Candace Platt

Ann & Chris Quick Maria & George Roach Janet L. Robinson Nancy & John Romankiewicz Erin & Joe Saluti

Alison & Thomas Schneider Brooke & Michael Stanton Judith C. Tolsdorf Joe Olson & Clay Twombly

This list represents donations from January–December 2021. † deceased

To learn more or become a member of the Society, call (508) 228-1894 ext. 122 or email giving@nha.org

MUSEUM SHOP IS OPEN

PASSION AND PURSUIT

Passion and Pursuit The Billings Collection

By David Billings and Beverly Hall Billings

This stunning book celebrates the Billing’s vision and passion. Through meticulously researched, detailed descriptions and context of their collection, it offers an extraordinary opportunity to expand our knowledge of these creations made over thousands of years ago throughout Asia.

Hand-Printed

Nantucket Christmas Tree Dingy Ornament

Suzanne Dietsch Sailor’s

Kit, Style

David Billings

Hall

HOLIDAY FESTIVALS