Hello, listeners and Isaac Hopper enthusiasts, WELCOME BACK to another episode of Isaac Hopper’s Diary: Declassified. My name is Daniel Greene and I am your host for this episode, and I could NOT be more thrilled to be here. Before we get into today’s declassification, I must remind you that if you have NOT tuned into our first episode hosted by Liz Regosin and Jackie Bootileer where they tell YOU everything you need to know about the main man Isaac Hopper, it is STRONGLY RECOMMENDED that you do so. This episode will focus less on who Hopper is and more on one of the stories captured in his diary, so if you found our podcast with no prior knowledge of our FAVORITE quaker abolitionist make sure you give that episode a listen.

Now let us get into today's episode, William P. Powell and the Black Sailors of the 19th Century.

Powell was a Garrisonian black abolitionist who gave BLOOD SWEAT AND TEARS for black civil rights. Powell maintained homes for black sailors located on 94 North Water St in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and on 61 Cherry St in New York City. Issued by the American Seamen’s Friend Society, his Homes cared for black sailors, some of which we know to be formerly incarcerated and sent to the home by Hopper himself. Along with Powell and his Homes for Sailors, this podcast will then cover a few black sailors from Hopper’s diary including Levi Johnson, John Smith, Leonard Briley, and Benjamin Myers.

So my fellow listeners you must be asking yourselves, “These men must be mentioned all over Hopper’s diary and Hopper must have a ton of information regarded who they are, right?” UNFORTUNATELY, that is not the case. Let me tell you how I found this extraordinary story. While looking through the year 1847 in Hopper’s diary, he mentions how a gentleman named Levi Johnson was sent to William P. Powell who runs the Home for Colored Sailors, as it was called in that era, located on 61 Cherry St. in New York City.  At first this seemed like a throwaway line for me because that was the first time Powell is mentioned in the diary. Levi Johnson’s story caught my attention since he used an alias, and Powell and the Sailors Home just happened to fall into my lap since Johnson was a black sailor. Upon further looking into the Hopper Index, the number one source for everything in Isaac Hopper’s diary beautifully crafted by Liz Regosin, I came to find other black sailors. As I continued my research, I found a plethora of primary sources which covered Powell and his Homes for black sailors, as well as articles about the black sailors themselves and what their lives were like. I quickly came to the conclusion that William P. Powell and the Black Sailors of the 1800s were so interesting that they needed a full podcast episode. So ladies and gentlemen, without FURTHER ado, let’s HOP into it and declassify the story of William P. Powell and the Black Sailors of the 1800s.

“Those beautiful vessels, robed in white, and so delightful to the eyes of freemen, were to me so many shrouded ghosts. loosed from [their] moorings, and free, fast in my chains, and . . . a slave! This very bay shall yet bear me into freedom.”

This is the introduction to W. Jeffrey Bolster’s Black Jacks: African American Seamen in the Age of Sail. These words are spoken by Frederick Douglass from what he remembered when he was a slave boy. Bolster’s inclusion of Douglass, one of the most outspoken and famous former slaves and black abolitionists of the 19th century, lets the reader know right away how IMPORTANT sailing and life at sea would be for African Americans at this time. Labeled as “Black Jacks,” black sailors made for one-fifth of the 100,000 sailors employed every year by American shipping vessels. Captain Paul Cuffe was a free African American man who created a shipping empire and was responsible for many black sailors finding employment. Until the Civil War, black sailors were central to African Americans’ collective sense of self, economic survival, and freedom struggle and central to the very creation of black America. Seafaring affected African Americans further than just on the ships. It was seen as a place to escape plantations and became one of the most common occupations after the American revolution. Sailing helped give them a title and an occupation for others to know them by. The Seamen’s Protection Certificates given to mariners defined them as citizens, a label African Americans fought for and would continue to push for well into the civil rights era of the 20th century.

By the early 19th century, free African American men who lived in the North flocked to work on ships to escape the prejudice on the land. The shipping industry quadrupled between 1815 and 1860 and was one of the few industries actively hiring African Americans. Unfortunately, with the accessibility presented to these men, they felt like most of the young and bright African Americans were shipped away to be on the sea. The paradox to this is that few other occupations could be worked that provided enough money for an entire family, leaving these young men who possessed a lot of potential to sail away. By 1832, one-fourth of the heads of African American families were mariners. Although sailors did not get paid well compared to a lot of other trades at the time, African Americans were able to make almost just as much as their white co-workers on ships, and on some ships, they earned more. The free African American sailors were beacons of hope for the enslaved ones on the sea and on land. Intertwined in their business shipping items from the North to the South and vice versa, both perspectives could see each other and what life was like. The free sailors of the North would only get to enjoy their life of unrestraint for a few decades because by the 1830s, legislation started cracking down on black sailors and their ability to enter ports in southern states, free or not. Lawmakers feared the freedom of black men, and were scared by their small freedoms on the water turning into more freedom on the land. This also continued to Puerto Rico and Cuba as well, ass they were main ports for shipping from New York City. On page 199 of Bolsters book he includes a quote by the cuban Captain General don Francisco Dionisio Vives who said:

“The existence of free blacks and mulattoes in the midst of the slavery of their companions is an example which will become very dangerous one day.”

One of the most important individuals associated with the Black Sailors of the 1800s was William P. Powell. Powell lived from 1807 to 1879 and was born as a free man in New York. He was described as mixed of African and Native American descent. His father was a slave named Edward Powell who was freed in 1827 after New York abolished slavery. Powell was given a good education before becoming an apprentice sailor. Once Powell was done sailing, he settles originally in New Bedford, Massachusetts, and married a woman named Mercy O. Haskins. Labeled as a “Garrisonian” abolitionist, this meant he pushed the boundaries of gender and race more than other slave abolitionists of the time and also condemned the state military and church for being associated with slavery.

Powell has a long list of involvements and accomplishments, so if you have a pen and paper at the ready, you might want to get to note-taking. He was involved in the constitution of the American Anti-Slavery Society in 1833 and also helped find a local slavery society in New Bedford, the same year. He was one of the first members of the New England Anti-Slavery Society and protested racial discrimination in the state of Massachusetts and created a process through the 1840s to which they won the right to send their kids to public schools and also put an end to restrictions on interracial marriage in Massachusetts. Powell promoted women’s rights and black self-help. He was the Chairman of New Bedford’s Young Men’s Wilberforce Debating Society and was in support of the temperance crusade, a movement dedicated to promoting moderation and, more often, complete abstinence in the use of intoxicating liquor.

While still in New Bedford, Powell established his first Black Sailors Home on 94 North Water St., which is originally described as a “seaman’s temperance boarding house.” In 1839, he moves to NYC and opens his second Home for Sailors on 61 Cherry St., the one mentioned by Hopper in his diary. This Home would be funded by a group called the American Seamen’s Friend Society, which labeled Powell as the keeper of the house. The ASFS published a monthly journal called “the Sailors Magazine,” which was popular amongst the black sailor community. This magazine originally was titled “The Sailors Magazine and Naval Journal” when it was created in 1828 and underwent multiple name changes until its publishing ended over a century later in 1933. These magazines contained everything about sailing including deaths, incidents, poetry, life at sea, and more. Sold for the low-low price of a dollar and fifty cents per issue, this magazine helps to keep these men cataloged for families at the time and for research now.

Powell founded the Manhattan Anti-Slavery Society in 1840, and the society used the Sailors Home to host abolitionist meetings. In 1850, the Fugitive Slave Act was passed which became another issue for African Americans. This act increased the incentive to assist in capturing runaway slaves and punishing them. Powell was concerned for his children’s education due to discrimination and segregation so Powell and his family move to Liverpool, England for 10 years. He served as a conduit between American and British abolitionists across the pond. Powell returned to the United States and reopens the Sailors Home in NYC, this time at 2 Dover St.

Powell was a founder of the American Seamen’s Protective Union Association in 1863. This was one of Powell’s most important accomplishments. Black sailors all thought it was important to be protected because of how exploited they had been in the past. In the article, The American Seamen’s Protective Union Association of 1863: A Pioneer Organization of Negro Seamen In the Port of New York, Powell is quoted on page 157 saying:

“Thousands of Negro seamen enter the mercantile, marine land naval services at an early age, uneducated and unskilled in the mechanical arts or scientific knowledge, and therefore, have no chance if promotion on shipboard.”

Powell used the Sailors Home to host ASPUA meetings on Wednesday nights. Within two months the association had 55 members.

During the 1863 draft riots, which aimed its violence at African Americans first and foremost, white mobs attacked the Sailor’s Home. Powell, his family, and the men living there had to leave the life-threatening situation. The house was ruined and they then had to suspend the ASPUA meetings for a few months. Fun fact for any video game lovers out there: Powell is in Assassins Creed: Last Descendants - a novel about the popular video game franchise, as it depicts these exact riots, and Powell is a notable character. 

In 1866, Powell claimed his Home cared for more than 3,000 black sailors out of the New York port. Powell had remitted over $5,000 to the families of sailors and collected more than $40,000 from the U.S. Government. Powell didn’t stop his involvement even in the later years of his life as he served as a Delegate to the National Colored Labor Convention in D.C. in 1869 and was also a chairman of the New York Civil Rights Committee in 1873. Powell’s involvement with the African American community and especially with the black sailors of the 1800s cannot be undervalued. Now that we know who Powell was and his long list of accomplishments, let’s talk a little about his Home for Colored Sailors we read about in Hopper's diary.

By looking at “The Northern Black Worker during the Civil War” which is a section from the book, “The Black Worker from 1896,”  I was able to find some very special first-hand information about The Homes. This book has a lot of great quotes which describe the purpose of what these Homes were trying to do. These Homes were places of trying to both educate and tutor men on how to resist vices that may lead them to trouble and as a community of people who face the hardships of being a minority and always facing racism and prejudice. While trying to get sailors to want to be apart of the Homes, the following quote is taken from their flyer from the sailors magazine:

“Cooks, Stewards, and Seamen, who come to this house will have their choice of ships, and the highest wages; and if they are not satisfied after remaining twenty-four hours, no charge will be made.”

Originally, there was a Home for white sailors, not black sailors, established by the American Seamen’s Friend Society. After two years of success, the society arrived with the idea to make one for the black sailors because they needed more protection. These newly established Homes for Colored Sailors totaled 4,725 boarders and averaged 450 sailors a year that looked for a place to stay. Due to many of the black sailors getting into the occupation as a way out of the normal life in America, there is a quote that describes what the Homes viewed themselves and their borders as:

“A refuge for the tented, a protection for the virtuous, and a house of mercy for the wrecked and destitute.

Boarders at the Homes labeled as destitute and wrecked is a familiarity to the words used by Hopper in his diary to describe some of the individuals who he speaks to and logs about. Of the black sailors in his diary, Levi Johnson is the most covered. Levi, who also went by the alias Joesph Johnson, had spent most of his young life in prison. Johnson was born in Alexandria, Virginia and by the time he met Hopper in 1847, he had already done 10 years in prison for burglary and four years later was arrested again for almost the same offense. Johnson was an inmate at Sing-Sing prison for four years and eight months, and then was sent to William P. Powell at the Colored Sailors Home on 61 Cherry St. There, he found his next life step, becoming a sailor. Johnson was able to secure a job as a chef on the boat called “the Big Fanny.” By reading about what life was like on trade ships in the mid-1800s, we can assume Johnson was responsible for making mostly soups and stews because those were some of the only meals that could feed entire ships with minimal food. It was hard to get fresh vegetables and drinking water, so much of the crew relied on drinking rum. Life on the sea could be hard to bear with such damp and cold conditions.

Another person mentioned in Hopper’s Diary was Leonard Briley. He suffered from a disease known as rheumatism. Now known as Rheumatoid arthritis, rheumatism caused severe pain in the hand and finger joints. Briley was 23 according to Hopper’s diary and was born in Baltimore, Maryland. He also was a former inmate at Sing-Sing prison and he acquired rheumatism in the cell he stayed in due to the damp and cold conditions. He was a sailor but said his hands hurt so badly that he could barely do his work.

John Smith was 43 when he talked to Hopper in hopes of going back to sea after his five-year stint in Sing-Sing for grand larceny, the same charges as Johnson and Briley. According to Hopper, in a letter Smith brought from the prison, Smith was a man of high-character man even when beaten and bruised at one of the harshest prisons in New York.

Benjamin Myers seemed to have had an alcohol problem, and to get back to sea he had to sign a temperance pledge. Not only this, he spent time in Sing-Sing for assault battery and intent to kill. This sailor could definitely be viewed as a bit wrecked and destitute, but with the help of Hopper and maybe a man like William Powell there could still be hope for Myers.

Life for a sailor has always been a story of freedom and adventure, but in the case of the black sailors of the 1800s, this wasn’t always the case. We know now that even though being a sailor was a valid occupation for African Americans in the era, we also learn that being on the sea doesn’t always mean freedom. Black sailors who endured hardships before, during, and after their lives needed the help of men like Powell and his Homes that could give them a place to live and grow. The sailors and the associated people who helped them like William Powell have a story that deserves to be told for the world to hear. Although this podcast can’t cover every detail of the expansive history of thousands of sailors during a century of trade along with an abolitionist who has an incredible list of achievements, we can do our best to create an entertaining story to let others forward the uncovered truth. This brings us to the end of another installment of Hopper’s Diary: Declassified. I was your host Daniel Greene and I hoped you all enjoyed the story of William P. Powell and the Black Sailors of the 1800s. All articles and resources used for today's episode will be located in the podcast description and information. The theme music for this podcast is Night Snow, by Asher Fulero, found on You tube audio library. If you enjoyed today's episode, tune into our next episode for more uncovered stories from the diary of Isaac Hopper.