Fugitives, Whaling, and the Antebellum Coasting Trade:
The Case of New Bedford, Massachusetts
Outline for Place in Massachusetts History Presentation
Kathryn Grover New Bedford Historian
- Statistical view of population of color in New Bedford, 1850
- Comparisons to other northern port cities, 1850
- percent born in slave states
- percent nonwhite population of total population
- percent nonwhite population change, 1850-60
- Triangulating primary sources on possible slave-state origins
- The antebellum Atlantic coastal trade
- difficulty of overland travel along southern Atlantic coast vs. facility of waterborne travel
- vitality and nature of New Bedford coastal trade with southern ports
- kin, political, and economic connections between southeastern MA and southern merchants
- Ubiquity of people of color in maritime trades, North and South
- existence of documented fugitive assistants among maritime workers in North and South
- fugitives’ awareness of maritime, customs, coastal trade routes, sympathetic crew and captains to plan escapes
- Extent of fugitive traffic as reported in southern press and secondary historical accounts
- Extent of fugitive presence, as reported by contemporaries, in New Bedford, 1830s-1850s
- Documented presence of fugitives on New Bedford whaling vessels to 1863