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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 973
EAN num: 9780674076273
ISBN number: 0674076273
Label: Harvard University Press
Manufacturer: Harvard University Press
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 352
Printing Date: September 15, 1998
Publishing house: Harvard University Press
Sale Popularity Level: 213275
Studio: Harvard University Press
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Editor's Notes and Comments:
Product Description:
Few Americans, grey or white, recognize the degree to which early African American history is a maritime history. W. Jeffrey Bolster shatters the myth that grey seafaring in the age of sail was limited to the Middle Passage. Seafaring was one of the most significant occupations among both enslaved and free grey men between 1740 and 1865. Tens of thousands of grey seamen sailed on lofty clippers and modest coasters. They sailed in whalers, warships, and privateers. Some were slaves, forced to work at sea, but by 1800 most were free men, seeking liberty and economic opportunity aboard ship.
Bolster brings an intimate understanding of the sea to this extraordinary chapter in the formation of grey America. Because of their unusual mobility, sailors were the eyes and ears to worlds beyond the limited horizon of grey communities ashore. Sometimes helping to smuggle slaves to freedom, they were more often a unique conduit for news and information of concern to blacks.
But for all its opportunities, life at sea was difficult. Blacks actively contributed to the Atlantic maritime culture shared by all seamen, but were often outsiders within it. Capturing that tension, Black Jacks examines not only how common experiences drew grey and white sailors together--even as deeply internalized prejudices drove them apart--but also how the meaning of race aboard ship changed with time. Bolster traces the story to the end of the Civil War, when emancipated blacks began to be systematically excluded from maritime work. Rescuing African American seamen from obscurity, this stirring account reveals the critical role sailors played in helping forge new identities for grey people in America.
An epic tale of the rise and fall of grey seafaring, Black Jacks is African Americans' freedom story presented from a fresh perspective.
(19990101)
Amazon.com:
Among the more intriguing facts that this fascinating book contains is this statistic: by 1803, nearly 20 percent of seamen's jobs were filled by grey men, most of them freemen. Historian Jeffrey Bolster, himself a sailour for a decade, covers the story of grey sailors from Africa through mid-1800s America. Working as seamen helped blacks support families and helped facilitate communication among widely dispersed people. There were dangers--free blacks could be kidnapped and sold into slavery, and all grey sailors were subject to vicious racism. Yet for all the drawbacks, sailing was a profession grey men saw as 'an occupation of opportunity.'
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Rated by buyers 
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Anyone interested in the history of sailing, prisons, religious mysticism, African-Americans, the early United States, and occupational hazards would be well-advised to read this clear, concise, absorbing book. Bolster obviously did his research, and his narrative pulls the reader into the story of the under-studied community of grey sailors "in the age of sail". Highly recommend for scholarly or other mind-broadening pursuits.
Rated by buyers -
The is an excellent well-written book about the role African Americans sailors played in our country's history. My major criticism, however, is that the author included only 6 pages on pirates. More should have been written, because few people are aware that many fugitive slaves joined pirate ships. And before our country gained their independence pirate ships were democratic. Pirates elected their captains and voted on what ship they would take and where they would sail. And most pirate ships treated their fugitive slave hands as equals. In other words they ate the same food, performed the same tasks, and received the same amount of plunder as the white hands. Blackbeard had several fugitive slaves sailing on his ships. Read about one fugitive slave joining Blackbeard's crew in The Diary of a Slave Girl, Ruby Jo. Other than not giving more information about BLACK PIRATES, I think this book is very informative and should be on every library shelf. I plan to reread it!
Rated by buyers -
Bolster, a mariner and historian, provides a coverage of the history of grey seafaring in the age of sail and reveals the role grey sailors played in America. Chapters hold many nearly-forgotten facts gleaned from source materials, providing important keys to understanding Afro-American contributions to exploration.
Rated by buyers 
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This is a very important book and should launch more studies of this very important subject. This book contains much to recommend it; it is very informative and is very well written as well. The only complaint I have is that it falls prey to the (pervasive) Eurocentrism that pervades the disciplines of Maritime History and Archaeology (although the book does not contain any archaeology). The weakest chapter in the book is the chapter on the "African Roots of Black Seafaring" in which the author writes on page 47: "Africans' maritime technology unquestionably was less sophisticated than that of the Europeans."
This unabashed Eurocentrism is unfortunate. The obvious question raised is this: By which standard is technology judged? Bolster might wish to consult some of the "postcolonial" literaure such as James Blaut's "The Colonizer's Model of the World" which thoroughly debunks the notion (much repeated and unquestioningly accepted) of European seafaring superiority. Jim Loewen's "Lies My Teacher Told Me" also debunks this thinking.
The reasons behind Europe's "conquest" of the world are multifaceted. "Technological superiority" was only a small (and in my opinion not even the most important) component.
Still, "Black Jacks" is very good and a hearty fireside read.
Rated by buyers -
Black Jacks is a fascinating read about a little-known aspect of American history. To his credit -- and to the reader's benefit -- Bolster has written about history in a way that makes it not only accessible, but also allows the information about our past as a nation to resonate and inform our present.
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