by Lorin Lee and Francine C. Cary

A b s a l o m F . B o st o n , H i s F a m i l y , a n d N a n t u c k et's B la c k C o m mu n ity

15

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 confidently 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 grandparents 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;

16 HISTORIC NANTUCKET and George, 20 June 1755. No birth date is listed for the youngest Boston, later known as Peter, since he became free immediately. 1

Swain's decision to manumit his slaves meshed with a long-standing Quaker aversion to slavery on the Island, but other circumstances determined the actual timetables of their freedom. William Swain freed Toby in 1762, two years earlier than scheduled, for reasons unknown, while Prince gained his freedom three years ahead of schedule as a result of a court case in 1773. In the early 1770s Prince signed on as a crew member of the whaling sloop Friendship, owned by William Rotch, a well-known Quaker. When Captain Elisha Folger paid Prince his share of the proceeds at the end of the voyage, John Swain sued Folger to recover the money. The jury, however, ruled in favor of Folger and the magistrates of the Nantucket Court of Common Pleas, it seems, then freed Prince Boston, the first such case in the Commonwealth. Swain appealed the decision but, "discouraged by the feelings of the people and the circumstances of the country," changed his mind when Rotch let it be known that he might retain Boston attorney John Adams as counsel. 2 One year after the court ruled against him, and perhaps chastened by his experience with Prince Boston, Swain in 1774 freed Silas Boston. Then only 22, Silas agreed in return to make one more whaling voyage for Swain. 3

In the years after they gained their freedom, the children of Boston and Maria began to raise families, build homes, and establish themselves as independent workers. Between 1770 and 1790 Tobias, a whale fisherman, Seneca, a weaver, and Essex, a shoemaker, for example, all

1 Nantucket Court Records, Registry Deeds, V, p. 225, VI, p. 264. (Hereinafter cited as Registry Deeds.) For Peter, see Revolutionary War Pension and Bounty Land Warrant Application Files, Microcopy No. M-804, Roll No. 292, National Archives.

2 Nantucket Court Records, Court of Common Pleas, I, October 1773, pp. 297-98; Nantucket Inquirer, 14 ]*eb., 14 March 1822; Alexander Starbuck, The History of Nantucket: County, Island, and Town (reprint: Rutland, Vt„ 1969; orig. pbd. 1924); George H. Moore, Notes on the History of Slavery in Massachusetts (reprint: New York 1968; orig. pbd. 1886), p. 117; Edouard A. Stackpole, The Sea Hunters: The New England Whalemen During Two Centuries, 1635-1835 (New York, 1953, p. 287.

3 Registry Deeds, IX, p . 102.

ABSALOM BOSTON 17

bought land in the West Monomoy shares, out Pleasant Street toward the old mill.4 During the next half-century other second and third generation Bostons would buy part or most of the land in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh lots of the West Monomoy shares. Other blacks lived in this area as well. The weaver Africa acquired land there in 1723, Pompey, a sailor, in 1775, and Cato, a ropemaker, in 1774.5 As the number of blacks increased, to 274 or nearly four per cent of the Island's population in 1820, the area became known as New Guiney, While that name pointed to the African roots of its inhabitants, many of the families who lived there were, like the Bostons, native-born Nantucketers.

Thus the Bostons passed on, from generation to generation, a sense of familial responsibilities, pride, and love of freedom. The story of Absalom's father, Seneca, suggests the nature of these cross-generational influences and the implications of the passage from slavery to freedom. In early 1770, then 26, Seneca married Thankful Micah, probably an Indian. Four years later and now a free man, Seneca bought from Barnabas Coffin twenty four square rods of land in Newtown, near the house where his mother Maria lived with her new husband Pompey. Here the weaver Seneca built his workshop and home and here he and Thankful raised their children. They named one child Freeborn, eloquent testimony to the joy created by Seneca's own release from bondage. Their other children, all given biblical names, were Reuben, Thomas, Joseph, Mary, Hannah, and Absalom. This naming pattern reflects the strong religious beliefs which sustained the family and which manifested themselves later in the family's efforts to establish a church in Newtown. With the exception of their father, all males in the family were mariners for some or most of their working lives.6

Absalom began his career as a mariner in about 1800. Where his name appears in land and probate records prior to 1820 he is listed as "Black Man Mariner." Although successful enough at this occupation so that he could purchase land while still in his early twenties, by 1820 Absalom is listed as both a "laborer" and a "mariner." In that year, by

4 Registry Deeds, VIII, p. 177; X, p. 319; XII, p. 83.

5 Registry Deeds, IV, p. 18; V, p. 302; IX, p. 40.

6 Nantucket Court Records, Court of Common Pleas, I, pp. 4, 99; Registry Deeds, X, p. 319; XXII, pp. 168-69; Nantucket County Probate Records, 1804-1850, V, p. 378.

18 HISTORIC NANTUCKET

then 35 years old, he also applied for and obtained from the county commissioners a license to run a "public inn,"7

But Boston made one more voyage before he retired from whaling. In many ways the voyage of the Industry, with Absalom F. Boston as captain, was an outgrowth of the pride and heightened nationalism which characterized the black community of Nantucket as it grew in size and stability beginning in the 1820s. Probably a joint venture involving several Nantucket blacks, the Industry left Nantucket for the Bay of Mexico on May 12, 1822, its all-black crew and officers conscious of both the uniqueness of the venture and its relationship to the "noble colored t a rs " w h o h e l p e d m a n t h e w h alin g v e sse ls o f t h e e ra . A l t ho u g h t h e I n dustry returned in six months with only seventy barrels of oil, not much for the time, the crew believed it had been a worthwhile voyage. Boston, certainly, won the esteem of his fellow whalers, friends, and relations. As one member of the admiring crew wrote: Here is health to Captain Boston His officers and crew And if he gets another craft To sea with him I'll go.8

Boston, however, did not get another craft, and since the voyage did not pay for itself, the Industry and its whaling apparatus were auctioned off upon his return. It seems that the thirty-seven-year-old Boston stayed on land for the remainder of his life, using his talents to contribute to the building up of the black community in which his family lived and worked. In the 1830s Absalom opened a store on property he owned in Newtown. There, until his death, he sold assorted "goods, wares and merchandise."?

7 Registry Deeds, XXII, pp. 69-70; XXV, p. 387; XXVI, p. 155; Nantucket Court Records, Court of Sessions, 1817-1833, County Commissioners, 9 Oct. 1820, n.p.; County Commissioners Records, I, p. 99.

8 N a n t u c k e t I n q u i r e r , 16, 23 and 30 May, 11 June, 6 and 20 Aug., 5 and 19 Nov. 1822; "Schooner Industrys (Expedi)tion on a Whaling Cruise, A Song Composed on Board of Her," manuscript in possession and quoted with permission of Edouard A. Stackpole. Our thanks to Sidney Kaplan of the University of Massachusetts for sharing with us his i n fo rm atio n o n t h e I n d u s t r y . 9 N a n t u c k e t I n q u i r e r , 17 and 24 Dec. 1822, 15 April 1823; Nantucket Court Records, Court of Common Pleas, pp. 218-19, 437-38, 556; Registry Deeds, XXXII, pp. 51-2, 396-97, 574-75; XLIII, pp. 228-29; Nantucket County Probate Records, XIX, pp. 122-23, 123-24, 126-27, 448-49.

During his years as a mariner primarily, Absalom married twice, in 1808 to Mary Spywood and in 1814 to Phebe G. Spriggins, a second cousin from the line of Tobias. It is not clear what happened to Mary, but Phebe died in 1826 at the age of thirty-two. Mary and Absalom had one child, Charles Frederick, who became a mariner like his father and made several whaling voyages prior to his death in July 1833 at the age of twenty-four. Absalom and Phebe had two children, Henry (1819-1844), also a mariner, and Caroline (1818-?). Caroline married a James Clough in 1839, had at least one child, Amelia, and remained one of the few Bostons on Nantucket after 1864. Another child, its name and sex unknown, died in 1818 at the age of one. In 1827, a year after Phebe's death, Absalom married Hannah Cook of New Bedford, one indication of the ties between that whaling port and Nantucket. Together they had five children. The first bore a popular name in the Boston family, Phebe Ann; born in 1828, she died in 1849of dysentary. Absalom F. Jr., born in 1832, died in April 1835, and with him his father's name. Two other sons followed, Oliver C. in 1836 and Thomas L. in 1837. Sarah, Absalom and Hannah's last child, was born in 1841 and died in 1846.10

The early death of many of Absalom's children suggests that a great deal of personal tragedy accompanied his efforts to support his family. But the children and grandchildren of Boston and Maria were a large and close-knit family with a strong sense of kinship ties and obligations. In the late 1820s and 1830s, for example, Absalom housed and supported his older brothers Joseph and Reuben, the mariner Reuben, in particular, long-plagued by financial difficulties. As Essex Boston had supported his aging mother Maria and stepfather Pompey, so did Absalom's brother Freeborn care for their aged and "insane" mother Thankful, following the wishes of their father Seneca as stipulated in his will. The Bostons, moreover, loaned each other money, shared land and dwellings, and worked hard to maintain and increase the land-holdings of Seneca, Tobias, Essex, and Peter. 11

10 Vital Records, III, pp. 108-10; V, pp. 67-8; Vital Records of New Bedford, II, p. 66; "List of Persons Composing the Crew of the Ship Ann of Nantucket," 15 Dec. 1827, New Bedford Crew Lists, Record Group 36, National Archives; Nantucket County Probate Records, XIII, pp. 456-57; 1850 Census, microfilm, National Archives. 11 1830 Census, Manuscript, Town Clerk's Office; Registry Deeds, XVII, p. 133; XXII, pp. 69-70, 83-4, 168-69; XXVIII, pp. 99-100, 38889; XXIX, p. 301; XXXII, pp. 25-6; XXXV, pp. 423-25; XXXVII, pp. 404-05; XLVIII, pp. 167-68; LI, p. 461; Nantucket Countv Probate Records, V, pp. 214-15, 378; Selectmen's Journal, 1784-95, pp. 36, 37; General Accounts, Town of Nantucket, 1827-37, 29 March 1827, n.p.

20 HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Such an augmented kinship system enabled the Bostons to establish themselves as a cohesive force in Newtown. Sharing with all Nantucketers the ups and downs of the Island's economy, the Bostons, like other blacks, struggled to maintain themselves economically, to hold their family together and care for their welfare across and within generations, and to provide opportunities and services to the broader black community as well. The family's position was further enhanced because of its ties — through marriage, friendship, common concerns and interests — to other members of Nantucket's black community. Through marriage, for instance, the Bostons were related to such Newtown families as the Pompeys, Barlows, Godfreys, Summonses, and Williamses — all of which stretched back into eighteenth-century Nantucket — as well as to the Harrises, Groves, Berrys, and Douglases. 12

Together these families formed the nucleus of the free black community on Nantucket. By 1820 the Newtown or New Guiney area consisted of a cluster of houses, gardens, and pastures geographically limited to the West Monomoy shares in the southwestern outskirts of the town and physically separated from the white community by the sheep barrier at the end of Pleasant Street which became known as Newtown Gate. Yet a strong sense of pride developed in this community, as its inhabitants struggled to make the most of the opportunities available to them at the time. Along with its own inn, and a store or two, there existed a "Meeting House" which served as a dancing hall as well. The community also had a cemetery, a collective place to bury its dead and to preserve the kinship ties which linked the past and present. 13 Many of the stones, dating back to the late 18th century and including some of those belonging to the Bostons, still stand, graced by the symbol of a palm or weeping willow tree.

During this period Nantucket blacks also established their own churches and a school. In both endeavors the Bostons played important

12 Vital Records, III, pp. 108-10; V, pp. 67-8; Nantucket Court Records, I (4 and 14 Jan. 1770, 9 May 1771, 5 Nov. 1772,28 Aug. 1785), n.p.; II (9 Aug. 1789), n.p. The federal censuses between 1790 and 1880 were also useful in establishing such ties.

13 Clay Lancaster, The Architecture of Historic Nantucket (New York, 1972), pp. 216-17; Stackpole, The Sea Hunters, p. 167; Emil F. Guba, Nantucket Odyssey: A Journey into the History of Nantucket (Waltham, Ma., 1965), pp. 103-04; Registry Deeds, XXXIII, p. 512; Nantucket Inquirer, 9 Aug., 8Nov. 1824, 16 May 1825.

ABSALOM BOSTON 21

roles. Absalom, for example, served as a trustee of the African Baptist Church, erected in 1825 at the corner of Pleasant and York Streets. The church, which also housed the African School, still stands although it is badly in need of restoration. The history of these institutions is a fascinating story, but space limitations preclude fuller treatment here. Suffice it to say that their formation testified to the sense of community among Nantucket blacks. By the 1830s Newtown's inhabitants shared with Absalom Boston the belief that theirs was indeed a "pleasant and healthy" village. 14

After 1830 Absalom remained one of the most prominent blacks on the Island. In addition to running his shop, he periodically received votes for local offices, bought and sold land, played an active role in the Baptist church, and fought for equal educational opportunities for black children. In 1845, for instance, Absalom filed suit on behalf of his daughter to gain admittance to the high school. 15

Although the decline of the whaling industry in the 1840s compelled many blacks to leave Nantucket in search of jobs, Absalom Boston, 65 in 1850, remained on the Island, as did many of his relatives and friends. With the Pompeys, Godfreys, and Harrises, among others, Absalom and his family still formed the basis of the black community, as they had for decades. Though some of these names linger on throughout the Civil War years and into the late nineteenth century, the Boston family's history becomes increasingly obscure after Absalom's death.

14 Nantucket Inquirer, 16 Aug. 1821, 3 and 31 Jan., 11 April 1825, 9 Dec. 1826; Starbuck, History of Nantucket, pp. 566, 572, 573, 574-75, 589-90; Guba, Nantucket Odyssey, pp. 136, 280-91; Registry Deeds, XXVIII, pp. 207-08, 438-39; XXXV, p. 221; Selectmen's Journal, 14 March 1836-10 Jan. 1845, pp. 127, 193, 224. See also School Committee Reports, 1820s through 1840s, Book of Records, Town of Nantucket, Town Clerk's Office.

15 Book.of Records, 1829-34, Town Meeting of 11 Nov. 1833, n.p.; 1838-40, Town Meeting of 11 Feb. 1839, pp. 118, 120-21; Registry Deeds, XXXII, pp. 51-2, 396-97, 574-75; XXXIII, pp. 85-6, 86-7, 87-8; XXXIV, pp. 287-88; XXXV, p. 221; XXXVI, pp. 4-5; XXXVII, pp. 282-83, 309-10; XXXIX, pp. 492-93; XLIII, pp. 228-29; XLVI, pp. 20506; LI, p. 461; Nantucket Court Records, Court of Common Pleas, Docket Book, 1839-49, p. 201.

22 HISTORIC NANTUCKET

Absalom died on June 6, 1855, at the age of 69. He died in Nantucket where he was born, and was buried in the Boston family plot in the Old South or "colored peoples'" cemetery. Perhaps the wealthiest black on Nantucket, Absalom left behind a relatively sizeable estate, his land alone valued at $1,000 in 1850 and somewhat more by the time of his death. In addition to his own home, he owned a store, two other houses, a garden lot on York Street and a mowing lot on Pleasant Street. 16

16 Deaths, Town of Nantucket, 1850-89, p. 20; 1850 Census, microfilm, National Archives; inventory and appraisal of Absalom F. Boston's estate, Nantucket County Probate Records, XIX, pp. 126-27, 448-49.

The Colored People's Cemetery, south of Mill Hill Park, where Captain Boston and other members of the black community are buried.

Hannah died not long thereafter. Other family members gradually dispersed, Thomas, a barber, settling in New Bedford where his mother had been born, for example. By the time of the Civil War Nantucket records contain few references to Islanders who still bore the last name Boston. The final listing we have found to date is for Benajah C. Boston, the son of Benajah, grandson of Peter, great grandson of Boston and Maria, and second cousin of Absalom. He appears on an 1864 roster of men eligible for service in the state militia. Next to his name are two words which, like the tombstones of his relatives in close proximity to the old mill, point to the links between the Boston family and the broader Nantucket community. Benajah C. Boston, the list indicates, was "at sea."17

17 Nantucket County Probate Records, XIX, p. 446; Registry Deeds, LV, pp. 184-87; Book of Records, Nantucket Town, 1863-69, pp. 90-91.