Philadelphia Tribune - Index

Philadelphia Tribune - Summer Sojourner 2008 - Index

Cultural Canvas
‘Black Hands, Blue Seas’
New exhibit explores African-American maritime experience
The compelling history of the African-American maritime
experience is explored in Independence Seaport
Museum’s “Black Hands, Blue Seas” exhibition, now on
display until March 22, 2009.
“This exhibit will allow audiences to discover the oft-overlooked
aspects of African-American maritime history,” says
Museum President Lori Dillard Rech.
While many histories offered of African Americans at sea
deal primarily with slavery, “Black Hands, Blue Seas” highlights
the substantial contributions they have made to the maritime
world.
Since America’s founding, American seafarers of African
descent have labored in ships and ports, served in our Navy and
Coast Guard and agitated for social justice.
“African Americans’ maritime contributions have been largely
ignored throughout history,” says Curator Craig Bruns. “This
exhibit gives us the opportunity to reflect on and appreciate
those contributions.”
The exhibit also tells the stories of Arctic explorer Matthew
Henson, abolitionist William Still, freed slave Jane Johnson and
sail-maker and social activist James Forten. Bruns introduced
the concept of the Delaware River and other waterways as the
“Underwater Railroad,” bolstered by the stories of enslaved
African Americans gaining their freedom via boats, rivers and
the sea. The Seaport also expanded the contemporary element
by including stories of local African Americans in the maritime
world today, such as naval personnel, tugboat captains, shipyard
workers and marina masters.
The family seafaring lineage of local African-American maritime
expert Rod Sadler is featured in the exhibit. As a youth, he
recalls his father’s occupation as a wall of silence.
“The real reason I got involved with this exhibit was not only
because of my father, who was a ship fitter for 35 years down at
Rod Sadler stands in front
of a display of himself at
the Seaport Museum.
Photos/Robert Mendelsohn
SOJOURNER SUMMER 2008
33
the Navy Yard, but also
because I grew up in this
household where you
weren’t suppose to ask
‘What do you do?’
because loose lips sinks
ships,” said Sadler.
“There’s a whole long
line of family that were
either merchant seamen
or longshoremen.
“My great uncle’s,
uncle was on the
Olympia and was
listed on the log as
an ‘octoroon.’That’s
how they classed
you. There were
very few Blacks on
board and then they were
either in the galley or
they were a steward
working with the galley.”
Noting that African
Americans are the largest
demographic group in
Philadelphia, Rech says
“Black Hands, Blue
Seas” presents the
Museum with an
unprecedented opportunity
to serve this audience
now and in the
future. “This exhibit will
allow audiences to discover
the oft-overlooked
aspects of African-American maritime history,” says Rech.
The Museum currently holds a small collection relating to
African Americans’ seafaring traditions, but Bruns says he
hopes the new exhibit will serve to spark donations to expand
the Museum’s African-American maritime collections.
“The exhibit will also help us to focus efforts to incorporate
African Americans into the stories we tell in the future,” Bruns
says. “It represents our first step towards this goal. This is a very
large and important story, how both enslaved and free African
Americans participated in the commercial and military maritime
endeavors that were central to the founding of this country.”
Independence Seaport Museum is located on Penn’s Landing
at 211 S. Columbus Blvd. & Walnut St., with easy access from
Exit 20 off I-95 and a short stroll from the Liberty Bell. For
more information, call (215) 413-8655 or visit www.phillyseaport.org.
Bobbi Booker