The Civil War Comes to Nantucket
by Andrew Spencer
It was 150 years ago that the bloodiest war in American history began. Officially, the American Civil War started when Union forces attacked a Confederate stronghold at Fort Sumter, off the coast of Charleston, South Carolina, in response to the seizure of the federal fort by Confederate soldiers. Over the course of the next four years, men rallied around their respective flags and fought against each other all the country. When the smoke finally cleared and Lee offered the Confederacy’s unconditional surrender at the Appomattox Court House in 1865, more than a million men, both Union and Confederate, had perished. That number represented a staggering 3% of the population of the country at the time.
And while Nantucket wasn’t the site of battles and no military strongholds exist on the island to stand testament to the events that unfolded during the war, our little island still had significant involvement in the Civil War. Some 300 Nantucket men fought on behalf of the Union in both the Army and Navy, with seventy-three of those brave souls dying for the cause. The memories of those courageous men are commemorated on the monument at the top of Main Street, where their names are carved into the stone pillar.
Just as Nantucketers were involved in the actual fighting of the war, so, too, were residents of the island actively engaged in the abolitionist movement to outlaw slavery across the country. The Brotherhood of Thieves, long before it was a popular local eatery and watering hole, was the title of an abolitionist pamphlet written by Stephen S. Foster.
The pamphlet – the complete title of which is The Brotherhood of Thieves; Or, a True Picture of the American Clergy: A Letter to Nathaniel Barney of Nantucket — denounced and condemned those who championed slavery as an institution. “But every slave-holder, whatever his profession or standing in society may be, lays his felonious hands on the body and soul of his equal brother, robs him of himself, converts him into an article of merchandise, and leaves him a mere chattel personal in the hands of his claimants,” wrote Foster of those engaged in the practice of slave ownership. “Hence he is a kidnapper, or man-thief.”
Additionally, at the young age of twenty-three, an escaped slave who became a vocal abolitionist, gave the first speech of his storied career at a podium inside the Great Hall of the Nantucket Atheneum. That young man’s name was Frederick Douglass.
In honor of the 150th anniversary of the start of the American Civil War, the Nantucket Historical Association has scheduled a slate of events to mark the historic date. This week, the NHA is proud to present Dr. Ira Berlin, professor of history at the University of Maryland, as he presents a lecture entitled “Slavery and the Coming of the Civil War” at the Whaling Museum on Saturday, September 17, at 7 pm. Called “one of the nation’s foremost scholars of the slave era” by the Boston Globe, Dr. Berlin is the author of three books on slavery in the United States, all of which have received multiple prestigious national awards and been lauded by critics.
“Slavery is at the center of the history of the United States. We can't understand the history of the United States without slavery,” Berlin said. “Slaves were central to the economy of the United States.” And as for the South’s “peculiar institution” as a cause for bloodshed, Berlin said, “I know of no slave society in which slavery was eliminated without violence or the threat of violence. Thus the wartime abolition of slavery in the United States was no aberration.”
Thus, the topic of slavery will take center-stage in the Whaling Museum when Dr. Berlin re-engages the philosophical and political debates that agitated the nation — and Nantucket — in the years leading up to the American Civil War. Dr. Berlin will provide insight into the economic changes, social divisions, and political turmoil that sparked the war, with the issue of slavery as the focal point of the discussion.
“It is obvious that slavery has captured the imagination of the American people,” said Berlin. “We can see it in the movies, museum exhibits, the TV shows, and so on. I believe that this represents a coming to terms with an important, if difficult, part of our history... Slavery is a difficult subject, but an essential one for us to understand if we are to understand who we are as a people and to address slavery's extraordinarily long-lived legacy.”
Tickets for Dr. Berlin’s lecture are free for NHA members and $10 for nonmembers, and will be available at the door of the Whaling Museum on the night of the lecture beginning at 6:30 PM.
Mark your calendars, too, for a presentation and discussion of historic artifacts from the American Civil War housed in the NHA’s collections. On Tuesday, September 27, at 7 pm, the NHA’s curatorial staff will be offering a presentation of photographs and other items from the Civil War period. Selections from the vast archives will include numerous photographs of active soldiers and veterans, as well as specific military pieces.
Discover the many connections between Nantucket and the events of the Civil War with a closer look at the objects, artifacts, and relics of a brutal and heartbreaking time in our nation's past. Artifacts on display that visitors will be able to see up-close include swords, canteens, bullets, and a checkerboard from the famous Libby Prison.
Ben Simons, the NHA’s Robyn & John Davis Head Curator, said of the September 27 event, “Nantucket had one of the highest percentages of volunteer enlistment of any town in the nation. This is our way of honoring their legacy.”
Acquisitions Night at the Whaling Museum on Tuesday, September 27, is a free event that is open to the public. The doors open at 6:30 pm, and the presentation will begin at 7 pm.
The NHA will offer Civil War-themed programming through the month of October in recognition of the war’s 150th anniversary. For more information on these and other NHA programs, call 508-228-1894, or check out the NHA calendar on their website at www.nha.org.
