Nantucket's neutrality during the American Revolutionary War

Background

The earliest European settlement in the region around Nantucket was a French colony established on Martha's Vineyard, which was erected before Thomas Mayhew was gifted the island in 1641. The land-grab which occurred after Mr. Mayhew sold 9/10ths of his land at bargain price resulted in a rapid settlement of the island from places like Massachusetts and New Hampshire. These new residents, in an attempt to carve out success for themselves in a land supposedly filled with "opportunity," began to explore new agricultural and commercial industries.

Background on the Early Economy

Chief among these new industries was whaling. The Nantucket Historical Association (NHA) notes that inhabitants of the island may have seen Right Whales washing ashore on their beaches as early as the 1690s, and it is confirmed that by 1715Nantucketers must have learned there were Sperm Whales living in those waters as well. There was high-demand for quality oils within the Colonies and back in Europe, but particularly in London, which was by far the most industrialized European city at the time. Recognizing their fortunate geographic location and in need of a good living, large numbers of these early settlers began to hunt sperm whales by the early 1700s. Herman Melville writes in Moby Dick that "thus have these Nantucketers overrun and conquered the watery world like so many Alexanders." By the time the American Revolution began in 1775, the island had become the premier whaling economy on the Eastern Seaboard also developed into a crucial trade partner for the British Empire across the Atlantic.

Demand and Spermaceti Oils

London had experienced the effects of industrialization during the beginning of the century, and they experienced both the good and the bad of the urbanization and modernization that came with it. A rise in crime rates in London was blamed in part on the city's widespread lack of street lights, which soon became chief among the concerns and prompted the creation of a program to counteract that exact issue in 1736. Gerald S. Graham wrote in "The Migrations of the Nantucket Whale Fishery: An Episode in British Colonial Policy" (New England Quarterly 8.1, 1935) that at the time, London held spermaceti oils and their lubricant byproducts in high-regard, as they was odorless, gave the "clearest and brightest flame," and were of comparable price with vegetable oils. Various ancillary industries on Nantucket such as shipbuilding and spermaceti processing also emerged in order to support the growth of this new burgeoning island economy.

Background on Early Society and Politics

Inhabitants of early Nantucket were largely drawn to the island from the surrounding rural areas of New England, even though until 1692 the lands were still officially designated as a part Dukes Country in New York State. Due to the island's Wampanoag origin, it developed a liberal and accepting social culture, which prompted a large influx of Quakers to Nantucket who were seeking to escape religious persecution from the British. "The History of Nantucket," an article in the Christian Register and Boston Observer written on December 28, 1839, states that "the persecution of the Quakers let to the settlement of this island." Known collectively as the Society of Friends, these Quakers became some of Nantucket's most influential founding families and more often than not brought their cultural majority to bear in local politics.

The Situation in Early 1775

In 1993, Nathaniel Philbrick penned a scholarly article for an edition of the The New England Quarterly (66, no. 3, pp. 434–437) titled 'Every Wave is a Fortune: Nantucket Island and the Making of an American Icon.' In it, he wrote that "during the winter and spring of 1775, as Britain and her colonies teetered on the brink of war, Nantucket Island was mentioned repeatedly in the halls of Parliament." While there is some inherent 'puffery' there, it is undeniable that Britain valued Nantucket's whaling exports at high-value, and demonstrated this in excess when it came time to make decisions about whether or not to prepare for the Revolutionary War. This is evident in the Massachusetts Bay Restraining Bill of 1774, where Nantucket was infamously exempted from a bill that prohibited trade out of Boston and banned the use of fisheries on the East Coast and in Newfoundland. This was reinforced by another House of Commons bill banning fisheries that passed by a 261/65 margin on February 10, 1775, that again purposefully exempted Nantucket, this time in no subtle way due to the fact that the island's whaling industry's was a sizable colonial asset for the British economy. As for the reason, one needs to look no further than a report compiled by Thomas Jefferson in 1775, which states that in that year alone, Nantucket boasted half of Massachusetts' total whaling vessels (150/304), contained half of the seamen manning those vessels (2025/4059), and had the production capacity to collect and churn out over 30,000 barrels of oil in a single calendar year. As Lydia S. Hinchman and Lydia S. Hitchman wrote in a piece for the Bulletin of Friends' Historical Society of Philadelphia (Vol. I, No. II, February 1907), to truly "understand the situation perfectly, one must go back to the latter part of the 17th century and follow closely the history of fishing interests of Nantucket, and consider the building up of a business which would have been ruined if the islanders a century later had boldly taken sides with the Colonists."

The Economic Predicament of Neutrality

It is important to realize that Nantucket was caught precariously in the middle of two opposing forces when tensions flared in 1775. On the one hand, they were an important part of the Massachusetts Bay Colony, and were valued by the colonists who lived there. As such, the islanders were ever-immersed in a sea of revolutionary activity, and answered to a state government that had for the major part of the past year been governed by a distinct form of colonial martial law. This was a dangerous proposition, as Nantucket had no defense system of any kind, no standing army, and no barracks; and even worse they were hopelessly geographically isolated, adrift from the Massachusetts coast. They could have been easily overtaken or occupied by the Colonists or British if they proclaimed loyalty to either side. Moreover, another aspect to consider is that the livelihood of local inhabitants was entirely dependent on the oil trade with London. Alexander Starbuck notes in a July 1874 edition of the New England Historical and Genealogical Register that the success of the island's commercial ventures in 1775, which at that time included professions such as "merchants, blacksmiths, coopers, boat-builders, riggers, sailmakers, oil and candle manufacturers, carpenters, seamen, and similar intertwining occupations," was entirely predicated on the continued sale of expensive whale products to the wealthy consumer base that lay across the Atlantic Ocean. These British merchants, recognizing the delicate nature of this arrangement, acted quickly to protect their cash-cow on the Eastern Seaboard. Quaker sympathizer and Scottish merchant, Robert Barclay, testified before Parliament as early as 1774 that Nantucket's supply of spermaceti oil was crucial for London's economy, and that neutrality might be a plausible option given that the majority of trade the island had conducted in the past bypassed the now traitors in Boston and was conducted directly with the mother country.

The Cultural Factors at Play

While joining the American Revolution would have certainly had negative consequences for the local whaling industry, economic considerations weren't the only factors at play in 1775. In particular, the spirit of Quakerism also played a significant role in Nantucket's decision to adopt a policy of neutrality. The Society of Friends, which was a Quaker organization made up of families such as the Macys, Coffins, Gardners, and Starbucks, presided over local politics with a pacific character, and "entertained a strong and almost universal opinion that wars are wrong."

Hinchman and Hitchman reinforce this fact in their article 'William Rotch and the Neutrality of Nantucket during the Revolutionary War,' where they write that "a powerful factor in their [the Quakers'] non-partisanship or neutrality was the spirit of non-resistance fostered by Quakerism, the prevailing religion on the Island at that time." An article on the 'History of Nantucket' from an 1839 edition of the Christian Register and Boston Observer notes, similarly, that the Quakers' "well-known aversion to war has proved a far better shield to them than fleets and fortifications could have been," as they were "exposed on all sides, without a single fort, arsenal, or military company."

Following the Outbreak of War on April 19th, 1775

By the summer of 1775, Nantucket was feeling pressure from both the U.S. Colonies and the British Empire. On July 7, 1775, the provincial congress in Philadelphia passed a resolve stating "that no provisions or necessaries of any kind be exported from any part of this colony to the Island of Nantucket until the inhabitants of said Island shall have given full and sufficient satisfaction to this Congress, or some future House of Representatives, that the provisions they have now by them, has not been and shall not be expended in foreign, but for domestic production." A clear statement to cease trade with the British, this proclamation from the domestic powers at be was met with an immediate response from the settlers of Nantucket, who outlined their commitment to neutrality - on both moral and cultural grounds - in a letter from six selectmen to the Board of Massachusetts on July 14, 1775. Following the incidents in Concord and Lexington, this letter explains how "the inhabitants are the greater part, of the people call'd Quakers, whose well known principles of Religion, will not admit of their taking up arms in a military way in any case whatever." However, the 5,000 inhabitants living on Nantucket at that time also had some selfish motivations, chief among them the wealth and prosperity that the whaling trade had afforded the island's most prominent merchants and traders. As George Rogers Taylor wrote in 'Nantucket Oil Merchants & The American Revolution" for The Massachusetts Review, "When the sting came during and following the war, the Nantucket oil magnates demonstrated how little their attachment to a new nation or affection for their island home counted against prospective gain from hunting and processing the whale." Thus, it appears a tentative neutrality was established, where both sides were skeptical of the island's loyalty, as were Nantucketers for a time skeptical of the best course towards sustained trade and shelter from physical harm.

Following the Loose Establishment of Neutrality, 1776-1872

By 1776, although the economic and social elites on Nantucket had demonstrated their commitment to neutrality in both their actions and their letters in response to those sent accusatorially by the Provincial Congress, there was still light pressure to act from powers on both sides of the war. Because many of Nantucket's important Quaker families moved off the island once the war began, there was an immediate pressure to reinforce ties with the British Empire over the whale trade, and in response, a committee of Benjamin Tucker, Timothy Folger, William Rotch, and Samuel Starbuck was immediately sent to New York City to parlay with the British so that trade could continue as planned. The desire of these elites to safeguard their business investment is evident also in Nantucket's actions during the early-war period, such as in December 1778, when the British schooner The Hammond wrecked on the Nantucket coastline and Timothy Folger outfitted the shipwrecked British forces with small vessels and provisions in order to get them safely to New York. The British also seemed all too eager to protect their economic allies on the island during this time. A primary source reading of a local girl's diary, Keziah Fanning, reveals that on April 5 of 1779, loyalists forces came to Nantucket with orders not to harm or uproot local citizens, but to "destroy rebel property wherever it be found."

The Rebel Reaction and Nantucket's Response

Inevitably, this caused some pushback from Colonist forces over the exact parameters of neutrality. Perhaps adding insult to injury is the contention of some modern-day scholars, who theorize that Nantucket continued to trade with the British even after their declaration of neutrality. As a result, on the 25th of September in 1782, a Town Meeting was held on Nantucket and a letter (signed by Frederick Folger, the Town Clerk) was sent to the Court of Massachusetts that officially explained the island's stance and outlined, once again, their desire to remain neutral during the war. Furthermore, the letter attacked rumors that Nantucket had continued to trade secretly with New York City. In the following weeks, William Rotch and Samuel Starbuck were sent as envoys to Philadelphia, where in the winter of 1782 an official Agreement of Neutrality was drafted, signed, and made law. As one scholar notes, "Nantucket struggled through the war and experienced considerable prosperity after the proclamation of peace."

William Rotch

Of all the individuals present on Nantucket during the situation in 1775, few had more influence on local affairs than William Rotch. Rotch was born on the island in 1734, and had inherited considerable wealth from his father. This inheritance, which Rotch split with his brother Francis, included, among other things, two major shipping vessels, the Bedford and the Dartmouth - the latter is of course known for being the ship from which a considerable wealth of tea was flung during the Boston Tea Party in 1773.

Timothy Folger

Timothy Folger was a prominent businessman on Nantucket during the Revolutionary War period and was the member of one of Massachusetts' most successful early American families. He was a successful business man, a captain, and a member of the groups that were sent to New York City and Philadelphia to discuss neutrality during the war. Folger was a 3-time representative to both Massachusetts and New York from 1779-1782.

Legacy and Scholarship

Nantucket's decision to exercise its free will and remain neutral during the Revolutionary War made it one of the poster boys for early American exceptionalism, while at the same time the success of the island's whaling industry exemplified the idea that the "American Dream" was attainable for colonists attempting to carve out personal fortunes in the New World. This legacy is inculcated by the famous French explorer St. John de Crevecoeur, who visited Nantucket in the early 1770s and mentioned it repeatedly in his 1782 book Letters to An American Farmer, writing of the economic success that "what has happened here has and will happen everywhere else." It is also referenced in Thomas Jefferson's 1788 book Observations on the Whale-Fishery, which he wrote as Minister to France following the conclusion of the Revolutionary War in 1783, and which describes in detail the success of "Nantuckois" in the service of Britain's whaling industry during the decades after the war. Today, the island is regarded for economic success in tourism, but within the architecture and history of the town there are echoes of a substantial whaling prosperity that occurred long ago.