American Historical Ephemera and Early Photography, including The Larry Ness Collection of Native American Photography

"List of Seamen. A List of the Crew On Board the Schooner Sidney of Baltimore Thomas Coward Master, bound for Havana." List of Maryland-based crew aboard the Schooner Sidney, including African Americans. 16 x 20 1/2 in. (creasing, completed separated at center fold with adhesive on verso). Signed by Captain Thomas Coward ("Thos. Coward"), and with embossed seals at bottom. Verso with signatories of the Port of Baltimore.

Identified on the crew list are at least two African Americans, Abram Jackson of Maryland, "Aged 22 years height 5 feet 10 1/2 inches black complexion, black eyes, black wooly hair" and George Gleeves, also of Maryland, "Aged 40 years height 5 feet 2 inches black complexion." Three other sailors are identified as either "brown complexion" or "dark copper complexion" and may also have been persons of color. Interestingly, the document also identifies one crewman as a citizen of Spain, possibly an individual brought to serve as a Cuban intermediary and interpreter.

A fascinating document which demonstrates the ways in which seafaring offered unique opportunities to persons of color. Historical sources and anecdotes indicate that Black sailors were regularly employed on vessels, most famously on whaling crews, but also on military vessels and other ships. Seafaring provided opportunities for freedom, independence, and economic prosperity that were often difficult to obtain on land. The Steamship Historical Society of American indicates that in the early nineteenth-century an estimated one out of every five American seamen was Black.