Chapter 1

Chapter 1

 This chapter opens the reader up to the lifestyle of the whalers. Nantucket in the early 1800s is a booming whaling community. It would seem to an outsider that everyone, including women and children, breaths the whaling industry. (pg. 2) This chapter also describes the hierarchy of the island. It is a very religious island, mostly Quaker, for this reason I found it odd that there was such a profound hatred of others by the Quakers. Firstly the people that were not lucky enough to be the descendants of the original settlers fell short of those who were. In addition if a person was not Quaker they were all but blatantly avoided by the Quaker community. Finally if a man was not a whaler, had never been a whaler, or never intended to be a whaler, he automatically dropped in social standing. I thought this was really odd because whenever I had previously heard of Quakers I always thought of them as caring abolitionists who would risk their own safety to help others. This community, however, was vastly different before the Essex left port, and for years after the survivors’ return. All of the African American sailors aboard any whaling ship got lower quality food and were still segregated from the rest of the crew members. 

Nantucket Whaling Museum Video