Nantucket is 30 miles off the mainland of Massachusetts. After an hour-long ferry ride, I stepped off the boat onto the cobblestone streets, sucked in the cold sea air, and felt myself transported back to the nineteenth century when Nantucket was one of the richest cities in America thanks to one big commodity: whales.

In the 1700-1800s, whale oil was used to light lamps. Whale baleen (the filtering fibers in their mouths) and blubber were used for carriage springs, corsets, fishing rods, bed frames, umbrellas, combs, candlewax, soap, make-up, and kitchen tools. You name it, and whales helped make it.

Many settlers went to the island called "Nantucket," a Native American word meaning "Faraway Land," and Nantucket soon became the whaling capitol of the world. Most of the Nantucket settlers were Quakers, and their strong work ethic turned Nantucket into an economic powerhouse.

Sometimes, boats would journey for up to four years to the South Pacific and South America. Most of the crewmembers were young males, often black and poor. Some sought adventure, like the young Herman Melville who went on a whaling voyage at the age of twenty and ended up living with South Pacific cannibals. Others, especially free blacks starting new lives after slavery, sought a way to climb out of poverty.

Nantucket was a multiracial community, and because of its Quaker beliefs, was a hotbed of abolitionist activity. But not all Quakers were saints. When some crews didn't find any whales, they would sail to Africa to capture slaves and bring them to South America.

Nantucket women were a tough breed. Because their husbands were often away for years at a time, and because Quakerism stresses equality between men and women, wives could buy property, control their finances, and own businesses. It was women shopkeepers who kept the island going. Given their independent nature, it's not surprising that so many of them would have a great impact on our history. Among them are the abolitionist and feminist Lucretia Mott, the first woman astronomer Maria Mitchell, and Mary Ellen Pleasant, a black woman who became the mother of the California civil rights movement!

Eventually, Nantucket's fortune declined with the discovery of petroleum in 1859. Many of the whalers then went into other businesses. In fact, it is thanks to them that we have Macy's Department Stores, Folger's Coffee, and my Coleman tent. Nowadays, Nantucket survives based on its tourist industry.

Now I'm actually excited to try and read Moby-Dick. And so the first thing I do when I return to Boston is open up Moby-Dick and begin reading… "Call me Ishmael."

Irene

Please email me at: irene@ustrek.org