Hiding in plain sight: Virginia oystering and landscapes of abolitionism

Abstract

In July 1832, seventeen enslaved individuals and one free black man stole a whaleboat and sailed from Virginia’s Eastern Shore to New York City in search of freedom. This escape occurred months after Nat Turner’s revolt, and coincided with the rise of abolitionist ideologies and increased interest in the Colonization Movement. This thesis emphasizes the importance of the ‘culture’ part of the field of material culture studies, using the case study of the 1832 stolen whaleboat escape. The liminal nature of the Virginia Eastern Shore’s cultural landscape illustrates how culture dictated the freedom-seekers’ choice of the objects used in their escape—in other words, what influenced them to choose a whaleboat as their escape vessel. This thesis also addresses the role maritime industries played in spreading abolitionist rhetoric to free and enslaved blacks living on Virginia’s Eastern Shore in the 1830s.