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A DEMOGRAPHIC STUDY OF
LABOR STATISTICS ON
MARTHA’S VINEYARD
With particular reference to African American people
James Smadbeck
3/20/03
My thesis statement for this paper is
that opportunities for advancement for people of color on the island
of Martha’s Vineyard have been limited in our history because of
discriminatory practices in the allocation of work. In this study,
I have examined archival census records on Martha’s Vineyard to
seek support for my thesis statement., and have such data to formulate
theory.
“[In the nineteenth century], most free
blacks were confined by racism to low-paying jobs [and to living]
in cellars and shanties,” (Before the Mayflower pg. 77). Many of
today’s residents of Martha’s Vineyard may look at that quote and
come to the conclusion that the Vineyard and its population of African
Americans has always been too small for such travesties to have
occurred. But with a look through past censuses it can be found
that not only was there racism on the island but that its small
area may have been part of the problem, especially in the time between
the end of slavery and the end of the whaling industry. From 1790
to the mid-1800’s African Americans on Martha’s Vineyard were forced
into jobs that were low paying, dangerous, and at that time still
associated with enslavement. I theorize that this because of the
color of thei r skin.
Massachusetts had one of the lowest
populations of African Americans, let alone enslaved people, in
the United States before slavery was abolished in 1790. Except for
in portions of Connecticut and Rhode Island, the rocky soil and
hilly land made farming in New England almost impossible. The fact
was that there wasn’t much need for enslaved labor, outside of the
few private farms and the cranberry bogs, and as a result slaves
in Massachusetts were mainly confined to domestic and maritime jobs.
It came as no surprise when all of New England abolished slavery
by 1790, leaving the North to then on be known as the home of the
freemen.
After this time many African Americans
were left with no jobs and families to feed. In large areas like
New York City and Philadelphia, where mass production was not yet
in use and artisans were in great need, this was not a problem.
“A very large portion, and perhaps most of the artisans of Philadelphia
were black,” (BTM pg. 78) and New York was home to some of the most
successful African American caterers and restaurant owners of the
time. It was a little different in religiously stricter Boston and
the much smaller towns that surrounded it. These towns had their
own set of artisans and didn’t need African Americans taking business
away from them. “As freemen, not only were the former slaves dependent
on themselves for the sale of their own labor, but in addition had
to face the competition of white working men,” (The Negro in Colonial
New England pg. 304).
As a result many African Americans failed
to succeed as artisans in these small towns. This left only the
jobs that the enslaved people had formerly worked in that were yet
to be filled, as New Englanders had not yet gotten used to doing
the tasks for themselves. Many freemen returned to the bogs they
had worked in, to the house they had cleaned in, and the whaling
ships they had sailed on. Even after freedom had promised so much
they found themselves doing the same labor for minute wages.
This fact can be supported by the 1850
federal census. In this census twenty-one out of the twenty-five
African Americans in Edgartown (the maritime and African American
populous center of Martha’s Vineyard at the time) were either sailors
or employed as housekeepers and three of the other six were too
young to have jobs. Worse than that, it can be seen that eight of
the ten sailors lived in the shanties given to maritime employees
too poor to own their own house. The 1880 census is even more decisive,
as by then Edgartown had an African American population of 60 and
still only eighteen of those were not sailors, laborers, servants,
or housekeepers. Thirteen of the eighteen were still in school and
two others were sea captains (Martin and Webquish, both of mixed
descent). So in total only three African Americans on Martha’s Vineyard,
almost a hundred years after slavery was abolished in Massachusetts,
had managed to get jobs other than those traditionally connected
to slavery (two owned farms and one was a hotel cook).
Of course it was not only Edgartown
that left African Americans out of the job market. Chilmark, in
1880 (the year where the census marked occupation), only had twenty-six
of its eighty-eight African American residents not in the traditional
jobs, but it, like Edgartown, was a maritime town and the main industry
in the area was whaling. Tisbury on the other hand, was more of
the industrial town on Martha’s Vineyard yet, despite having a shoe
factory during this time period, still only managed three of its
sixteen outside the traditional jobs.
Many people may look at the facts stated
above and just blame the problems on a weak job market and the focus
the island put on whaling. Of course this also has evidence mounted
against it. For example, in 1850’s Edgartown not only were there
about 40 jobs specified in the census that were not traditional
slave jobs but over twenty of the people who had those jobs had
absolutely no competition. With so many jobs that were not even
represented by two citizens of Edgartown, some as familiar as a
shoemaker, dentist, barber, hotelkeeper, or teacher, it’s hard to
believe that really only three of the twenty-five African Americans
didn’t have jobs traditionally related to enslavement, and that
the twelve sailors among the other twenty-two decided that going
months on end chasing whales in often dangerous water was better
than becoming a barber or other safe profession. It’s hard to believe
that unless it was true that the African American residents of Martha’s
Vineyard had almost no chance of succeeding as independent artisans
in such a tight knit community.
“Despite the handicap under which they
labored, the free Negroes of colonial New England were slowly shaping
the foundation for the Negro families of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries.” (NCNE pg. 314) That quote conveys that even though many
African Americans were treated badly and forced to work for low
wages in the free North, some were still rising to the top and making
it easier and easier for African Americans of the future to succeed.
Martha’s Vineyard also had a few of these important people. People
who rose to own farms and captain ships.
The most notable of these people is
obviously Captain William A. Martin an African American who started
out being considered just a mariner in the 1850 census yet worked
his way to the title of sea captain thirty years later. His efforts
may even have led to his nephew being able to become a self-sustaining
fisherman, as told by the 1910 census. Other people also helped
out in this way like Daniel Webquish, a man of Native American and
African descent, who lived at the same time as Martin and who also
was able to become a sea captain, and the ten farmers who worked
independent farms according to the 1880 census.
All those people were able to help the
future African Americans, in that, at the time that they lived the
whaling market was declining and, in turn, so was the source of
most of the jobs of African Americans. These people helped other
African Americans realize what they could do in the future, mostly
by showing others how they could become their own men in the sailing
and agricultural industries. By the 1900’s the whaling industry
had died out and the population of African Americans on Martha’s
Vineyard was now focused mainly in the low-income cottages of Cottage
City (now Oak Bluffs). This didn’t mean that progress stopped even
though the population of African Americans in Edgartown had dropped
from a high of sixty down to eighteen, a level it had never been
to since shortly after slavery was abolished. No, of the eighteen,
ten of them we re self-sufficient cooks or fishermen. At that time
it was the only Dukes County census to have recorded having more
than 50 percent of the African American population of any town employed
in self-sufficient jobs unrelated to slavery and prejudice. African
Americans could then start over in a new, better Martha’s Vineyard
created by the death of whaling and great people like William A.
Martin and others.
“Whatever work the free Negro secured
was virtually identical with that done by the slave, who… engaged
in all types of labor. Freedom frequently wrought no change whatever
in their labor status,” (NCNE pg. 305). In conclusion, Martha’s
Vineyard has never been unfamiliar with African Americans. In 1776,
before slavery was abolished, there were over sixty slaves and freemen
on the island mostly for domestic and maritime duties. The African
American population of Martha’s Vineyard was centered around young
women being housekeepers and men being sailors and seeing that our
population was small and our whaling industry big it was no surprise
that we had the third largest percentage of African Americans in
Massachusetts. Even the two counties with higher percentages, Nantucket
and Boston, both were centered by huge whaling ports. Most African
Americans, while whaling was still a big industry, could hardly
find work outside of the maritime trade. This forced many of them
into low wage whaling jobs and government houses. Through this time
a few African Americans were able to rise through the ranks and
make a living through jobs unfamiliar to African Americans on Martha’s
Vineyard. Even though the population of African Americans dramatically
dropped after the whaling industry went under the examples these
people made still went forward and not only helped African Americans
learn to sustain themselves but white people to learn to accept
them also. By 1910, the African American population of Edgartown
had fallen to eighteen, but ten of those had self-sustaining jobs,
the largest percent ever.
Bennett, Lerone Jr. "Before the Mayflower: A History of Black
America", Chicago: Penguin Books, 1984.
Greene, Lorenzo Johnston. "The Negro in Colonial New England",
New York: Atheneum, 1974.
Pease, Richard L. “1850 Census of Edgartown.” http://history.vineyard.net//edgcen50.htm
(March 11th, 2003).
Pease, Richard L. “1850 Census of Chilmark.” http://history.vineyard.net//chilcen50.htm
(March 11th, 2003).
Pease, Richard L. “1850 Census of Tisbury.” http://history.vineyard.net//tiscen50.htm
(March 11th, 2003).
Swan, Judy. “1880 Federal Census of Edgartown.” http://history.vineyard.net//dukes/cen80e.htm
(March 11th, 2003)
Swan, Judy. “1880 Federal Census of Chilmark.” http://history.vineyard.net//dukes/cen80c.htm
(March 11th, 2003).
Swan, Judy. “1880 Federal Census of Tisbury.” http://history.vineyard.net//dukes/cen80t.htm
(March 11th, 2003).
Swan, Judy. “1910 Federal Census of Edgartown.” http://history.vineyard.net//dukes/cen10e.htm
(March 20th, 2003). |
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