Date of Award

Summer 8-1-2025

Document Type

Open Access Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Historical Archaeology

First Advisor

Nedra K. Lee

Second Advisor

David B. Landon

Third Advisor

Douglas J. Bolender

Abstract

In the mid-19th century, the decline in whaling initiated massive change on Nantucket Island’s cultural landscape. The thriving, but segregated, New Guinea community that formed in the late-18th century was also impacted by this shift. Tourism ultimately became, and still is, Nantucket’s primary source of income and has wreaked havoc on the historical narrative that is perpetuated about the island. This narrative rarely moves past Nantucket’s whaling history and does not discuss the continued Black presence on the island. This thesis uncovers the relationship between race, space, and community formation that existed on Nantucket between 1860 and 1920. To do this, federal census records were mined for demographic and spatial information of Nantucket’s Black population to determine if, and how, race continued to influence the locations in which people lived and their experiences while living on Nantucket. This thesis uncovers the social and spatial fragmentation of Nantucket’s Black community in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Comments

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