Black History Month

February is National Black History Month, and to celebrate we’re highlighting some of the contributions of Black sailors at the height of the Age of Sail. For centuries here in the United States, sailing was one of the most equitable professions for Black Americans. It was a ...read more

James Forten was born on September 2, 1766 in Philadelphia to free Black parents Thomas and Margaret Forten. Forten attended a Quaker school as a young child, then went to work with his father who was a sailmaker. His father died when he was still young, and Forten worked ...read more

Paul Cuffe was born on Cuttyhunk Island, Massachusetts, in 1759. His mother was a Native American woman named Ruth Moses, and his father was Kofi Slocum, a formerly enslaved man from the Ashanti Empire, located in modern-day Ghana. They had 10 children including Paul. His ...read more

William Tillman was a Civil War hero from Milford, Delaware. Records are unclear, but he was born approximately 1834 to free Black parents. Free Black families weren’t the norm for Delaware at the time and as a teenager, he and his family moved to Rhode Island. Soon after, ...read more

Today’s sailing community is pretty homogenous, but it hasn’t always been like that; at the beginning of the 19th Century, 20 percent of American sailors were Black. In fact, going to sea was one of the most equitable professions for Black Americans during the United States’ ...read more