By David R. Nelson

the example of Phebe to explore the “gray area” of labor practices that were unseen or peripheral to the moral consciences of the New England communities to which Americans returned after their time in Fiji.

Shoemaker’s ability to ferret out information is impressive, and the richness of detail that she includes is one of the elements that makes Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles so engaging. Such digging, however, may not always have been pleasurable. Writing of Williams, Shoemaker notes: “Surviving in his papers at the Phillips Library, Peabody Essex Museum, the manuscript [of a travel narrative] saw publication in 1956—remarkably so, since it has to be one of the worst written books in human history.” Yet in such “[o]ften unintelligible and ungrammatical” (170) documents, Shoemaker was able to find the information that grounds her argument.

Pursuing Respect in the Cannibal Isles is a valuable addition to maritime and South Pacific history. Shoemaker’s respect for and interest in the Fijians, their complicated interactions, and how these were shaped and distorted by Whippy, Wallis, and Williams sets this book apart from standard Fijian histories or from the stereotyped nineteenth-century view of Fiji as the “cannibal islands.”

— Mary K. Bercaw Edwards, Ph.D. Associate Professor of English, University of Connecticut

Van Gosse

The First Reconstruction: Black Politics in America from the Revolution to the Civil War

Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2021. 760 pp. Illustrated, maps, tables. Hardcover, ISBN: 978-1-4696-6010-3, $39.95; paperback, ISBN: 978-1-4696-7253-3, $29.95..

Americans think of the African American community’s search for freedom and acceptance by the majority white community as a phenomenon of the period following the Civil War. The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. stands out in our recent history as the prime advocate of the Black community’s desire for equality. Van Gosse in his documented research lays bare the period from the Revolution to the Civil War as an immensely active period of Black American involvement with the emerging political parties. The formation of the early political parties such as the Whigs, Free Soilers, Democrats, Republicans, etc. attracted many free African Americans who resided mostly in the New England states. As early as the early 1800’s in Massachusetts, for instance, Blacks were credited with providing the winning margin in Caleb Strong’s election as governor.

Of particular local interest in the book is the role that the African American community played in New Bedford in conjunction with the large number of abolitionist leaning and prominent whaling families such as the Rotches, Howlands, Congdons, Rodmans, and all other local Quakers.

Among other abolitionists who exerted a strong influence on the anti-slavery cause, Frederick Douglass arrived in New Bedford in 1838. Under the sponsorship of New Bedford confectioner and abolitionist Nathan Johnson and his wife Polly, a local caterer, he quickly advanced to become an iconic

According to Gosse, from 1841-1854, Black citizens of New Bedford held visible leadership roles. The Johnson family, including Nathan Johnson, Richard Johnson and his sons, were not only successful businessmen but also outstanding political operatives. Nathan Johnson was a “spoiler” candidate for the Massachusetts Legislature and the President of the National Colored Convention in 1847. It was stated that “New Bedford politicians of color contrast with those in other New England cities, none of whom played party politics with quite their zest.”

Gosse notes that in 1853, New Bedford had the North’s largest urban Black population at 8.8 percent of its population. This leads us to consider not only what the Black electorate could do in city elections but also in contests for the state legislature. Abraham Howland, New Bedford’s first mayor was elected and re-elected with the active support of the Black community. For helping Howland get elected, Henry Johnson was appointed by Howland to be one of the city’s two common criers (a coveted patronage position).

As the political dynamic began to change both nationally and in the individual states, there was a shift from the old political parties. The Whig party became the party of order and the Free Soilers (Free Democrats) become the party of change. Gosse points out that the patrician lawyer John H. Clifford of New Bedford was the leading Whig and according to Frederick Douglass, “about the most aristocratic gentleman in Bristol County.” Clifford went on to become the Attorney General of Massachusetts from 1849-1858 and governor in 1853-1854.

Gosse elaborates upon other notable New Bedford figures including whaling merchant Rodney French, a Free Soiler and former Democrat, who became the “admired champion of the ‘colored citizens’ and with their help, the city’s radical mayor.” To Gosse this story is a key part of New Bedford’s unique legacy of Black power in politics. The fact that New Bedford’s public schools were integrated, unlike Boston and Providence, showed an exceptionalism that caused Gosse notes further on that “If New Bedford had been the prototype for postbellum black politics the United States would have taken a different direction; instead it documents a might have been.”

Van Gosse’s meticulously detailed book on Black politics from the Revolution to the Civil War is a masterpiece of scholarship and a valuable resource to anyone looking for answers to the origins of Black activism during a turbulent period in American history. To the New Bedford reader, it is a wealth of information on the confluence of the whaling era with the rise of Black activism and a call to local historians to use Van Gosse’s work as a basis for further research into New Bedford’s role and impact on a matter of not only local but national interest.

— David R. Nelson, antiquarian bookseller, New

Bedford, MA.