This is a complete historical record of Martha's Vineyard's Wampanoag families, presented within the context of family genealogies. The main portion is a compendium of every Indian with Island connections whose name was found in the 17th and 18th centuries in various records, such as land records and deeds, wills, maritime, and census records.
The Methodist campground located in the small community of Oak Bluffs on Martha's Vineyard has been beloved by generations of visitors and residents. It was here, in the years of the Civil War, that the first clusters of small Victorian homes were constructed, replacing the temporary tent platforms that provided shelter to the faithful who had come by side-wheeler to listen to the preaching emanating from the central Tabernacle. Today, these makeshift structures have been transformed into Victorian cottages of almost infinite variety, a colorful, decorative necklace of glorious, unrestrained architectural fancy and diversity. Families have gathered here for generations, not only to celebrate their faith but also to partake in the social rituals such as Grand Illumination Night with its Chinese lanterns that have become an indelible part of our heritage.
Skip Finley's Town of Oak Bluffs columns in the Vineyard Gazette were widely popular thanks to his breezy style and historical content. In this curated collection, he presents a chronological telling of how the community became the welcoming seaside resort for a uniquely diverse group of residents and visitors, including five American presidents. Discover how islanders like Ichabod Norton, Old Harry and Lucy Vincent Smith helped to define the island we know today. From the Panic of 1873 to the Inkwell and beyond, these witty and whimsical tales prove why this particular spot is featured in the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture.
A Los Angeles Times Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007 A Boston Globe Best Non-Fiction Book of 2007 Amazon.com Editors pick as one of the 10 best history books of 2007 Winner of the 2007 John Lyman Award for U. S. Maritime History, given by the North American Society for Oceanic History "The best history of American whaling to come along in a generation." —Nathaniel Philbrick The epic history of the "iron men in wooden boats" who built an industrial empire through the pursuit of whales. "To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme," Herman Melville proclaimed, and this absorbing history demonstrates that few things can capture the sheer danger and desperation of men on the deep sea as dramatically as whaling. Eric Jay Dolin begins his vivid narrative with Captain John Smith's botched whaling expedition to the New World in 1614. He then chronicles the rise of a burgeoning industry—from its brutal struggles during the Revolutionary period to its golden age in the mid-1800s when a fleet of more than 700 ships hunted the seas and American whale oil lit the world, to its decline as the twentieth century dawned. This sweeping social and economic history provides rich and often fantastic accounts of the men themselves, who mutinied, murdered, rioted, deserted, drank, scrimshawed, and recorded their experiences in journals and memoirs. Containing a wealth of naturalistic detail on whales, Leviathan is the most original and stirring history of American whaling in many decades.
What are ethnic groups? Are Deaf people who sign American Sign Language (ASL) an ethnic group? In The People of the Eye, Deaf studies, history, cultural anthropology, genetics, sociology, and disability studies are brought to bear as the authors compare the values, customs, and social organization of the Deaf World to those in ethnic groups. Arguing against the common representation of ASL signers as a disability group, the authors discuss the many challenges to Deaf ethnicity in this first book-length examination of these issues. Stepping deeper into the debate around ethnicity status, The People of the Eye also describes, in a compelling narrative, the story of the founding families of the Deaf World in the US. Tracing ancestry back hundreds of years, the authors reveal that Deaf people's preference to marry other Deaf people led to the creation of Deaf clans, and thus to shared ancestry and the discovery that most ASL signers are born into the Deaf World, and many are kin. In a major contribution to the historical record of Deaf people in the US, The People of the Eye portrays how Deaf people- and hearing people, too- lived in early America. For those curious about their own ancestry in relation to the Deaf World, the figures and an associated website present pedigrees for over two hundred lineages that extend as many as three hundred years and are unique in genealogy research. The book contains an every-name index to the pedigrees, providing a rich resource for anyone who is interested in Deaf culture.
