Absalom F. Boston, His Family, and Nantucket's Black Community
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Lorin Lee Cary Francine C. Cary THE PORTRAIT OF Absalom F. Boston which hangs in the Peter Foulger Museum suggests a strong-willed and ambitious man. Outfitted in formal dress attire, complete with black cross tie, Boston gazes con fidently at the likenesses of other whaling captains which hang nearby. Common ties with the sea bind Boston to those other Nantucketers. Yet there is a difference. Absalom F. Boston was black, as was the entire crew of the ship Industry which he commanded in 1822. This article is an attempt to begin to relate what we have learned so far about Absalom Boston, his family, and the community he helped shape. Reconstructing the Boston's history is not an easy task, for like most working-class people they left no convenient collection of family papers. Their story has to be culled from diverse and scattered materials, among them land, probate, and court records, crew lists, selectmen's journals, Revolutionary War pension files, school reports, minutes of town meetings, and local newspapers. Born in 1785, Absalom F. Boston was a third generation Nantucketer, the son of Seneca and Thankful Micah Boston and the grandson of Boston and Maria Boston. We do not know when Absalom's grand parents came to the Island, but both were slaves owned by yeoman William Swain (1668-1770). Swain freed the two prior to the Revolution, although it is not clear exactly when. On November 23, 1751 he signed a statement that "Boston a Negro Man lately my servant is a free man & not a slave but hath liberty to trade & trafick with anybody & to go where he pleaseth. . ." Nine years later, on July 31, 1760, Swain drew up formal papers of manumission, freeing "my Negro Slaves" Boston and Maria "for and in Consideration of the Many good & faithful Services. . .Done Me. ." Swain stipulated that Boston, Maria, and "their youngest son" were to be freed immediately. Six other children were to remain slaves "untill they arrive to twenty Eight years of age" and Toby, then 21 and the oldest child, was to be freed at age 25 if he served "faithfully" until that time. Because of this stipulation, Swain had to list each child's birth date. Their pames and the dates of their births are as follows, Toby (also Tobias), 9 May 1739; Essex, 8 July 1741; Seneca, 17 March 1744; Patience, 13 March 1747; Prince, 15 March 1750; Silas, 28 June 1752;
