SEIZINGAGENCY:
Black Nantucket and the Abolitionist Press, 1832-48
by Justin Parisau

COURTESY OF THE NANTUCKET HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION A fugitive from slavery, Reverend Arthur Cooper arrived on Nantucket with his family in 1820. Two years later when an agent for his former owner came to the island to claim him, Nantucket Quakers assisted their escape.

Justin A. Pariseau, a 2003 graduate of Boston College and recipient of an Andrew W. Mellon Fellowship in Humanistic Studies, completed a research thesis in his senior year called, "A Separate World: Black Nantucket and the Fight for Equality, 1769 - 1858" which is on file at the Nantucket Historical Association library. Last year Pariseau was awarded a Paul Cuffe Memorial Fellowship through Mystic Seaport's Munson Institute of American Maritime Studies. He is currently at The College of William and Mary completing his dissertation entitled, "Abolitionist Whalemen: Race, Class and Antislavery Activism in the New England Whalefishery, 1775 - 1877." The document explores the treatment of African American whalemen aboard ship and whether the whaling fleet's mixed race crews put abolitionist rhetoric into practice at sea.

Editor's Note: This article is excerpted from chapters three and four of Justin Pariseau's Advanced Independent Research Project written in his senior year at Boston College: "A Separate World: Black Nantucket and the Fight for Equality, 1769-1858," a copy of which can be found at the NHA Research Library. Expanding on earlier research by Nantucket scholars Barbara Linebaugh White, Isabel Kaldenbach, Frances Karttunen, and others, Pariseau's research in off-island newspapers sheds new light on Nantucket's New Guinea community.

In an age of racism and adversity, black Nantucketers carved a life for themselves out of a predominantly white, Quaker world. A small community on the outskirts of town near the present-day Five Corners and the African Meeting House, New Guinea was a separate world, one whose residents fought to make meaning out of segregation and who would settle for nothing less than equality. Seizing upon the abolitionist and black press of the 1800s, Nantucket's blacks exercised agency and remained an essential part of the reform movements of the period. By piecing together evidence that survives and examining the wider material culture of New Guinea, a complex picture emerges, one in which members of a black elite reached out to a larger maritime world in the fight to end slavery and attain social justice for themselves.

Surviving records indicate that Edward J. Pompey, born sometime around 1800 on Nantucket, was likely between the ages of twenty-eight and thirty in 1830, roughly fourteen years younger than the already well-established Absalom F. Boston, famous for his 1822 captaincy of the whaleship Industry. Despite the difference in age, Pompey and Boston shared similar interests; both earned the title of captain and were storeowners and merchants in New Guinea. Asearch of historical records strangely yields far fewer references to Pompey than to Boston, a fact that belies the important position Pompey assumed in the black community. As a businessman and abolitionist leader, Pompey helped shape the thriving community's future.

Pompey established himself early on as one of Nantucket's leading black abolitionists. In the early to mid-1830s, as evidenced by his correspondence with and contributions to the major off-island abolitionist newspapers of the period, Pompey began to support the growing antislavery effort. Exposure to the Arthur Cooper incident as a young man in 1822 would have rendered him very much aware of the issues surrounding southern slavery, and particularly its impact on Nantucket. Whether experienced firsthand as a member of the mob that gathered in New Guinea to protect Cooper's family from the slave catchers, or from secondhand accounts after returning from a sea voyage, that incident and the antislavery heritage of the predominantly Quaker island would have set the stage for Pompey's activism. Beginning first with his activities as agent for William Lloyd Garrison's Liberator in the early 1830s, Captain Edward J. Pompey made a move by the end of the decade to broaden the scope of abolitionist literature available to black Nantucketers. It was his chance to make a statement on Nantucket Island, both against slavery and for black equality.

After Pompey accepted "the Agency for the Liberator in Nantucket" according to William Lloyd Garrison's 1832 letter, evidence suggests that a sizable number of black Nantucketers subscribed to the newspaper. In an attempt to collect late payments on subscriptions to the Liberator, the newspaper's general agent in Boston wrote to Pompey, care of Absalom F. Boston. On September 9, 1835, Henry E. Benson noted for Pompey, "on looking over our books I find that a number of our subscribers in your town have not paid." Of the thirteen subscribers who owed payment, eleven names are recoverable from the original document. All were "colored" residents of Nantucket, including William Harris, John Banks, Jacob Jones, Lydia Morey, William R. Robinson, George Watson Simmons, James Dennison, Frederick H. Quaine, James Williams, Samuel Harris, and Absalom F. Boston. Although this list of names is representative of older, mature leaders in Nantucket's black community, by subscribing to the Liberator in 1835 they were making a statement about the direction they wanted New Guinea and its residents to follow in the future, particularly to ensure their children would grow up in a more just world.

Pompey's involvement in the abolitionist press only grew. He went on to link himself to the leading black newspaper of the time, the Colored American. Judging from the correspondence of Pompey and Absalom Boston, there is more than enough reasonable evidence that New Guinea blacks were reading and invested in this paper. Under the heading "New Agencies" in the July 15, 1837, edition of the Colored American, Nantucketers could read the following: "Our General Agent, Brother Ray, has appointed Captain E. J. Pompey of Nantucket, Mass., Agent for that place. We hope Mr. P. will exert himself in our behalf." In the same issue, the general agent of the paper, the same Charles B. Ray who appointed Pompey to his post, announced his intention to visit Nantucket. "I am abundantly encouraged with regard to the object of my mission," Ray noted, "though having done nothing yet- and if I do not succeed beyond what I expected, I shall be very much disappointed. I have been invited to visit Nantucket, on the subject of the paper, and shall probably do so, and spend a few days, more hereafter." Having the black editor of the most popular black newspaper in America visit Nantucket must have been exciting for New Guinea residents and would likely have engendered a good deal of racial pride. Later that same year the editors of the Colored American reported "the following sums have been received within the last month, from agents and friends." Edward J. Pompey was one of the correspondents listed, with five dollars by his name, either in new subscriptions or donations in fulfillment of his charge as an agent of the newspaper. One year later, he sent the newspaper $10.00. As an agent on island for both the Liberator and the Colored American, Pompey tied himself and his community to a growing network of abolitionists and an important nineteenth-century voice of African Americans.

Pompey was not the only Nantucketer in contact with the Colored American in the 1830s. The Reverend John P. Thompson of Nantucket's African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church also corresponded with the newspaper. In August 1839, he sent "letters and money." His ministerial activities in July and August 1839, however, deserve the most attention. "On Thursday evening, July 18th, [were married] by the Rev. J. P. Thompson," the Colored American announced, "Mr. James Clough to Miss Caroline D. Boston of Nantucket, eldest daughter of Capt. A. F. Boston." Noted as "both colored and residents of Nantucket" in the marriage record, they represented so much more. The title "Captain" once again singled Absalom F. Boston out as extraordinary and worthy of respect. The advertisement, probably placed by Caroline's father, emphasized the social standing of the Boston family.

As the daughter of Captain Absalom F. Boston, Caroline was coming from the upper echelon of New Guinea society and thus merited such notice in the press. Local island newspapers rarely covered such news when it involved black islanders. Boston turned to the Colored American, which was published in New York, to give voice to his pride in his family and community. Another marriage notice that was published in the same edition stated, "on Tuesday evening, 23d July by the Rev. J. P. Thompson, Mr. Randolph Cooper of Nantucket was wed to Miss Ann Brown of the same place." This time the bride's family placed the notice in the New York paper, with Cooper's family placing their notice in the Boston press. Randolph, the twenty-nine-year-old son of Arthur and Mary Cooper, was only twelve when slave catchers arrived on Nantucket in 1822 and threatened to destroy his family. Forced to flee from house to house as a young boy, Randolph, now a grown man, was the embodiment of New Guinea's future, as well as a reminder of how close the small community had come to disaster seventeen years earlier.

Another entry reveals both the practical concerns of blacks in seaside communities and the solutions provided by circulation of a black newspaper such as the Colored American. Rufus Cooper, a black resident of the island, served as delegate to the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1840. Interestingly, he and his counterparts appear in the May 23 edition of the Colored American not for their service at the meeting, but for recommending William C. Powell and his boarding house in New York City. "The accommodations are neat and clean, the table amply supplied with good and wholesome food, and last, though not least, the charges are moderate," wrote the black travelers from Providence, New Bedford, and Nantucket. "Therefore, with pleasure," the delegation agreed, "we recommend his house to our colored brethren traveling to this city, as worthy of their patronage and support." Seemingly an insignificant gesture, these men were actually providing a vital service for the blacks in their home communities and the readership of the Colored American. Mariners and travelers needed places to stay. Reputable and affordable boardinghouses that catered to black clientele were difficult to find. As W. Jeffrey Bolster has shown in Black Jacks, the boardinghouse was a combination of "the most dominant institution in mariners' lives" on shore and a potentially dangerous place that threatened to wipe out hardearned savings. Rufus Cooper's antislavery activities thereby dovetailed neatly into the practical social concerns of New Guinea blacks who made a living at sea and hoped to find refuge in reputable boardinghouses on shore.

Captain Edward J. Pompey also continued his work for the Colored American during this period. Pompey remained active in his capacity as an agent for the paper at least between July 25, 1840, and January 30, 1841. He would have been instrumental in facilitating the June 1840 trip of the Colored American's editors to Nantucket in his capacity as agent. "Before this article shall present itself to our readers," the editors reported on June 20, 1840, "we shall probably be more than one hundred miles from our post, working in some other department for the success of our paper. . . . We hope the friends where we go, will be ready to meet us. We expect to visit New Bedford and Nantucket and many other places."

Next week: Part 2 I

Seizing Agency originally appeared in the Fall 2003 issue of Historic Nantucket published by the Nantucket Historical Association. It is reprinted with permission from the author, Justin A. Pariseau and the NHA.