The Forgotten Black History of Martha’s Vineyard

The island has always been more than a summer playground

In 1855, an old, frail, dark-skinned woman sat confined to her room in Edgartown, MA, as the most powerful men in the seafaring hub came to beg her blessings. The town, on the eastern coast of Martha’s Vineyard, was a bustling center of maritime industry where fishermen, cargo shippers, and whalers plied their trades. It was the whaling men who’d travel…