Boarding: Black Women in Nantucket Generating Income and Building Community

This article addresses Black women's economic roles in nineteenth-century Nantucket, Massachusetts, during the island's ascendency as the center of a global whaling industry. Much of the existing scholarship highlights men's participation in the whaling industry, while Black women's contributions remain obscured. I use two main lines of evidence to interpret Black women's working lives: census records and ceramic vessels recovered from the Boston-Higginbotham House, a historic residence that was occupied by two Black families for almost 200 years. Changes in vessel forms over time indicate that Black women were increasingly finding ways to supplement the income of their spouses. I argue that Black women played an integral role in their household's economy, and in supporting the whaling industry, especially as boardinghouse operators. This form of entrepreneurship also served to expand Black families’ opportunities for building social networks and strengthening the Black community.