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Black Jacks: Unsung Black Heroes
eflecting on the time I
grew up in my river- front farming community, being part of a family that made its living from, fishing parties, catching oysters during the months with an “R” in their name, and catching fish, crabs, and farming during the late spring and summer was ex- ceptional.
Moreover, to Black youth in the area, Black seamen owning 25 feet or larger eight-passenger boats was not unusual. In fact, there were few Black families in our community that did not own a boat, and quite a few of the older men were for- mer Navy sailors during World War II. The best and eldest of our Black seamen were given the title of “Cap- tain Jack.”
Imagine my interest when I came across a 1997 edition of a book about Black seafaring men entitled “Black Jacks: African American Seamen (Sailors) In the Age of Sail (Sailing Ships). It was written by Dr. W. Jef- frey Bolster, a University of New Hampshire History Professor who researches African American History, maritime history and other histories.
The book tells little- known and forgotten history of Black seafaring men be- tween 1740 and 1865. Most of them were free men seek- ing “liberty” and economic opportunity or were slaves who were forced out to sea and who sailed in clippers,
coasters, whalers, warships, and “privateers” (family- owned boat business).
Dr. Bolster revealed the impact of Black seamen on the creation of the Black community and how their leadership was respected be- cause of their involvement in establishing churches and benevolent societies that helped build strong Black communities.
While researching the word “jack,” I found among the definitions the words “sailor,” “intellectual,” “in- sightful,” “honest heart,” “strong morality,” and “de- pendable”...
According to Dr. Bol- ster, the Black Jacks made up 15 to 30 percent of all men sailing in a given year and they “linked the global Black community in an age when most Blacks were illiterate . . . when most Black communities were not linked together by newspa- per” or any other form of media; “when communica- tion between widely dis- persed people of color was by oral communication from travelers or by the slave trade,” and “when Blacks were one of the largest groups of people who moved repeatedly during the age of slavery – between the West Indies, the Carolina low country, urban seaports (New York, Philadelphia etc.), and metropolitan capi- tols like London, England.
Black Jacks served as cooks, “cabin boys,” stew- ards, captains, and harpoon- ers by profession while they
“disseminated ...forms of African-inspired martial arts like stick-fighting and head- butting,” helped smuggle slaves to freedom, and car- ried news, messages and in- formation of concern to Blacks. Jacks were said to have “fired the opening salvo of the Black abolition- ist attack.”
Literacy may have been higher among the Black Jacks because the first six autobiographies published in the English language by Black men were written by mariners.
The downside of the maritime industry for Black men was discrimination and kidnapping into slavery. Yet, “Blacks joined white seamen in a common effort to balk the captains and merchants who abused them” even though “race” rarely disap- peared, even among ship- mates.
Indeed,
Frederick
Douglass
Paul Cuffie, (ship captain) who was one of the leaders behind the first Black-led back-to-Africa movement,” Denmark Vesey (leader of the largest slave revolt in South Carolina history), and Samuel Johnson (Mary- lander who often voyaged to the West Indies) are just a few of the Black Jacks Dr. Bolster researched.
After Emancipation took place, the number of Black Jacks began to dwindle because Post Re- construction white South- erners pushed to keep Blacks on land to plant and reap crops; a change in wa- terfront hiring policies that squeezed Blacks out of the maritime industry, and ex- clusion by 20th century Jim Crow unions.
This interesting page from America’s Black His- tory needs to be told. Now it has been introduced, and now you know. Harrambee.
(abolitionist),
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R
C. Blythe Andrews 1901-1977 (1945)
C. Blythe Andrews, Jr. 1930-2010 (1977)
What Former Pres. Barack Obama Did Wrong?
omebody said, “Barack Obama is gone. So, why does-
n’t he just stay gone . . . just chill beneath the radar and have a good life in Oahu.” He tried that. It didn’t work, remember? As if he had a pick axe and a shovel, President Donald Trump dug Obama up as if he was Tutankhamen, breathed the breath of “alternative facts” down his nos- trils, and started the “Everybody Hates Barack” all over again.
So, who was surprised if, on the third day of President Trump’s 100 Day carnie-show, President Barack Obama rose from anonymity and found himself in popular de- mand of a public speaking circuit that miraculously enough included former adversaries like Wall Street?
And who should care if former disbelievers like the folks who run Dow-Jones would shower their former foe with a $400,000 honorarium to come speak to them on the subject of affordable health care? “SAY WHAT? Did I hear you correctly?” We say, “Yes, you did.”
Most certainly, Conservatives are beside themselves. Trump’s Tweeter is off the Richter scale. Republicans re- tort, “Isn’t Obama the man who called Wall Streeters ‘Fat cats’ who want their cake and eat it, too?” “BLASPHEMY! HYPOCRISY,” they cry . . . even though the former Presi- dent’s spokesperson begs to remind them that in 2008 Obama raised more money from Wall Street than anyone else in the history of the business. Be that as it might; Trump is angry although he usually clears from $1 to $1.5 million a speech, which is slightly more than Ronald Rea- gan raked in at $1 million, or what Bill Clinton eked out at $150,000 to $450,000.
So, come on guys. What’s the real reason Barack Obama making that kind of money upsets you?
Shaq O’Neal makes that kind of money. “Yeah,” says an anonymous voice, “But Shaq is a professional Black ath- lete, and Obama is just Black! So, he should go home to Hawaii and write a book.”
We answer, “He would . . . if you’d leave him alone.”
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TUESDAY, MAY 2, 2017 FLORIDA SENTINEL BULLETIN PUBLISHED EVERY TUESDAY AND FRIDAY PAGE 5
organ donation waiting list, despite being just 13 percent of the American population. Also, because Blacks have higher rates of diabetes and high blood pressure, they have
a higher risk of organ failure.
Add to that, the lack of access to health insurance and preventive health care, places
Blacks at risk of late diagnosis of kidney and heart failure.
Sadly, because of historical distrust of the healthcare system, as well as fear that our
organ will not be used to save Black patients, the percentage of Blacks who donate organs cannot meet the needs of Black patients waiting on a donor.
In fact, a Black patient waiting on a transplant, does not necessarily need to have a Black donor, but is “more likely to have a successful match – based on certain genetic markers and antibodies.”
Therefore, we urge our readers to consider becoming an organ donor upon your death and to state your desire to do so in your will or on your driver’s license.
Letting your family members know about your wish to become an organ donor is im- portant as well.
Preplanning removes the burden of a family member having to make the decision for you.
Giving the gift of life to someone else is a life well lived for more than one lifetime.
Donating A Gift Of Life!
early three months ago, approximately 119,000
American patients were on the national transplant list awaiting a heart, kidney or other organs from an organ donor.
Why should you care?
You should care because 1/3 of those patients waiting for a kidney and 1/4 of them waiting for a heart – are Black.
Overall, in 2016, Blacks accounted for 30 percent of the
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