Six Spots to Stop

Stop No. 29

The Federated Church

Main Street, Edgartown

A plaque at the Federated Church in Edgartown celebrates one of the most influential African American luminaries to speak on the Island, Frederick Douglass. In 1857, the author and abolitionist who escaped slavery in childhood gave a speech on the unity of man at the Federated Church, which was then the Congregational Church. His visit is now commemorated annually at the church on each Fourth of July with a reading of the seminal speech he gave in 1852 to an anti-slavery society, What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? The speech calls out the United States for espousing freedom and equality while keeping millions of its people in bondage.

Though always living on the margins of society, Nancy was still able to exert broad influence on the townsfolk. Her 1857 Gazette obituary sums up her life: “She was a most singular character, and it will doubtless be a long time before we shall look upon her like again...May her good deeds live long in our remembrance, and her evil be interred with her bones.” In 2022, a new Barney Zeitz sculpture of Nancy (above) was installed near her plaque at Memorial Wharf in Edgartown.

Stop No. 9 Eastville Cemetery

Oak Bluffs

Located near the shores of Lagoon Pond, Eastville Cemetery once served as the Island burial place for immigrant mariners and people of color in the 18th and 19th centuries. The site was long neglected, covered in litter and overgrown with brush before more recent efforts to clean it up.

The African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard has also installed a memorial to Rebecca Michael at this location. A plaque on a bench recognizes Rebecca, who was the daughter of Nancy Michael (Stop No. 3, above) and the mother of whaling captain William A. Martin, who may be buried in the cemetery.

Stop No. 17

The Overton House

Oak Bluffs

The Oak Bluffs home once owned by Harlem union organizer Joe Overton was the hub of summer activity for the

Stop No. 6

John Saunders and the Pulpit Rock

Oak Bluffs

As the new faith of Methodism first found foothold on Martha’s Vineyard in the late 18th century, charismatic preacher John Saunders, a former slave, was among the first to sermonize this faith to people of color on the Island. He was known to preach at Pulpit Rock, now part of Pecoy Point Preserve in Oak Bluffs, where a plaque on a rock memorializes his religious endeavours. He and his wife lived in

36 Stops on The African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard

1. Rebecca Amos

2. Menemsha

3. Nancy Michael

4. William A. and Sarah Martin Homestead

5. William Martin Gravesite

6. John Saunders and Pulpit Rock

7. Martha’s Vineyard Regional High School

8. Bradley Square Memorial Church

9. Eastville Cemetery civil rights movement in the 1960s. A number of activists and prominent African Americans, from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to Joe Lewis to Jackie Robinson, all visited the Overton residence, which served as a summer retreat away from the life-threatening activism they engaged in.

10. Shearer Cottage

11. Gospel Tabernacle

12. Powell Cottage

13. Athletic teams of the early 1970’s

14. Edward Jannifer

15. Wampanoag Tribe

16. Landladies of Oak Bluffs

17. Overton House

18. Edward Brooke

19. Cottagers’ Corner

20. NAACP Martha’s Vineyard

21. Pioneer Educators

22. Dorothy West Home

23. Barber Hammond

Eastville until 1792, when they moved to Chappaquiddick where she died. John met an unfortunate fate on the little island as well. He remarried to a Wampanoag, and was subsequently murdered by tribe members who objected to the union.

24. Coleman Corners

25. George and Carrie Tankard House

26. Emma Maitland

27. Anne P. Jennings

28. Grace Church, Vineyard Haven

29. Federated Church, Edgartown

30. Edgartown Courthouse

31. E. Jacqueline Hunt

32. Esther and the Underground Railroad

33. The Nameless Trail

34. Dunmere by the Sea

35. Martha’s Vineyard Camp Meeting Association

36. Widow Rocker

To view the stops on the trail, you can take a guided tour or a self-guided tour with a map of the trail. For more information, visit mvafricanamericanheritagetrail.org.