One whaleman recorded as "dark," "mulatto," "black," "Indian," "black" (New Bedford and Mattapoisett crew lists, 1830s–1867)

SUMMARYOne whaleman recorded as "dark," "mulatto," "black," "Indian," "black" (New Bedford and Mattapoisett crew lists, 1830s–1867) [Connections: Northeast & Mid-Atlantic, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDHistorian Nancy Shoemaker shows that crew lists had columns for complexion and hair but none for race. Samuel Haskins's complexion was recorded as "dark" (1844), "mulatto" (1852), "black" (1856), "Indian" (1858) and "black" (1865). Amos Haskins was "copper" with "black" hair, then "marly" hair in 1849, then "mulatto" in 1851. At New London in the 1840s, a port official wrote "A Negro," "An Indian" or "Mulatto" in the margin beside "black" or "Col'd." Shinnecock whalers Notley and Garrison Lee sailed from New Bedford on the Pioneer in 1862. A Sag Harbor Whaling Museum spokesman estimates "probably 30 percent" of whalers were people of color (an estimate)

PATTERNOne man's race changed with each clerk who wrote it down

LENS (WW9)The same man was "Indian" in 1858 and "black" in 1865, and only the paperwork changed

OPENConfirm the Haskins family's nation (Shoemaker's book should say; likely Wampanoag, needs checking). Get the crew-list images from the New Bedford Free Public Library whaling crew list database

SOURCENancy Shoemaker, Native American Whalemen and the World (UNC Press, 2015), excerpt; 27east, Steve Wick, "A Shinnecock Man in the South Pacific," June 11, 2018.