Annual Meeting
Posted on October 4, 2017 by Jenny ONeill
6 PM Thursday October 19 at the Westport Free Public Library, 408 Old County Road, Westport
A short business meeting will be followed by:
The Slave Trade in New Bedford on the Eve of Civil War presented by Tony Connors, President of the Westport Historical Society
New Bedford’s well-deserved reputation for antislavery had a darker side. In the late 1850s, slaving vessels were being fitted out as whaling ships to avoid detection as they procured slaves in Africa to transport to sugar plantations in Cuba. With particular emphasis on the whalers Brutus, Margaret Scott, and Tahmaroo, this presentation shows what was going on in the whaling industry and what kind of men would be drawn into this illegal and immoral trade. Suggested donation $5.