April 21, 2025

Black Enterprise Was a Key Part of New England's Whaling Industry, Including As Ship Owners

April 21, 2025/ Anne Enke

Black Enterprise Was a Key Part of New England's Whaling Industry, Including As Ship Owners

At its peak, in the 1850s, the American whaling industry alone employed 50,000 to 70,000 workers who worked on an estimated 700 to 800 ships.

In the decades before cheap oil helped many industries truly take off, whaling played an important, but often overlooked, role in laying the groundwork for the antislavery movement.

Black sailors made up perhaps 20% to 30% of whaling crews. Of these sailors, some were enslaved and used their hard-won earnings to buy their freedom. Some of these sailors went on to finance abolitionist efforts. Others built houses of worship.

America 1898: Frazier B. Baker and Baby Julia Fatally Shot for Being a Post Master in Lake City, S.C.

February 22, 2023/ Anne Enke

The 19th century brought enormous change in the postal workforce. In 1802, Congress banned African Americans from carrying U.S. Mail. This ban lasted to the late 1860s, when newly-enfranchised, post Civil War African Americans began receiving appointments as postmasters, clerks, and city letter carriers.

In 1802, Congress banned African Americans from carrying U.S. Mail. This ban lasted to the late 1860s, when newly-enfranchised, post Civil War African Americans began receiving appointments as postmasters, clerks, and city letter carriers.

Ulla Johnson Fall 2020 Campaign by Yelena Yemchuk | Ulla's Tears for Jacob Blake

September 01, 2020/ Anne Enke

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Ulla Johnson Fall 2020 Campaign by Yelena Yemchuk | Ulla's Tears for Jacob Blake

The spirits of female nomads permeate Ulla Johnson’s Fall 2020 collection, filmed in this new campaign video , shot in the unfamiliar terrain of Long Island’s North Fork and starring Indira Scott and Jordan Daniels. April Hughes styles the shoot with images by Yelena Yemchuk.

AOC is not surprised to visit Ulla Johnson’s Instagram and immediately discover a tribute to Jacob Blake. Any designer who works with artisans in Peru and Kenya, while living in Ft. Green, Brooklyn is probably committed to the Black Lives Matter movement. Ulla writes:

“This is Jacob Blake. He was shot seven times in the back in front of his children. The cycle of violence in our country must come to an end. The moment is now for us to join our voices in unison to demand change at the local, state, and federal level, to cast out the current regime, to retrain our police officers, to fund our social workers, to unite our actions against a system that perpetuates racist violence.”

At this moment, Anne hears activists in Washington, DC gathered on this important day in America’s racial history. Jacob Blake’s sister is speaking, as he lies in a hospital bed paralyzed— BUT SHACKLED !!! — to his bed.

August 28: Anne’s Annual Day of Reflection

Today is the 57th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, held in Washington, DC on Wednesday, August 28, 1963. It’s also the anniversary of the brutal murder of the young, 14-year-old Emmett Till in 1955.

It’s also my birthday, and so the day of August 28, — one that should be spent in quiet celebration — is always a day of deep reflection for me about America’s original sin of slavery. Even more painful is the reality that decades later systemic racism is worse than ever in our country — best exemplified by the presidency of Donald Trump.