I have reached the end of the whaling voyage crew lists from the first third of the 19th Century that had been assigned to me so far.
As a side project, having seen things on lists that could be hints as to whether or not a person might be a self emancipated former slave, I made a list of any men of African descent. Empty spaces on a person’s detail spaces, as well as places of origin, might be good indications that might help in further research.
These people, some of whom went on to build the city, remained hidden on papers locked in boxes and on micro-film. Over the next few days I will publish the list of the names I found only on my ships, other transcribers did not do this. All terminology is as was written then as certain race related terms had specific meanings regardless how the words are used now.
So this Black History Month here is the first installment of Whalers of Color.
