Black Jacks Jeffrey Balster Summary

The tale begins in 1740; W. Jeffrey Bolster traces two centuries worth of untold history of African-American sailors, providing a look into the vast black mariner history and its’ connection to plantations, the Middle Passage and the New World, and its’ influence on black American history. The book aims to answer the lingering question of how seaports, serving as crossroads for people and ideas, played a role in the lives of black sailors while exploring the interaction of race and class at sea. “Black Jacks” situates black sailors at the heart of maritime history by acknowledging their roles as mediators between black and white cultures, and deepening understanding of the evoltion of black identity. He shows the determination, courage and resiliency of this group of exploited people throughout history, and broadens and emboldens collective awareness in understanding African Americans fundamental contribution to maritime history.
Bolster brings to light the preexisting images of the past: shackled ancestors setting sail to a land destined to bring terror and enslavement.
He dives deeper than these narratives and enlightens our one sided knowledge with the influence of Africans on the creation of wide networks of coastal commerce, economic influence, as well as the opportunity of freedom and dignified life that seafaring brought. Any African American confined to the plantation world gained advantageous possibilities and opportunities as a maritime sailor. Bolster achieved to uncover the other side of African maritime history, not confined to the Middle Passage, but the noble occupation and central role in creation of black identities that seafaring was. “Black Jacks” sheds light on the multi-faceted nature of a black identity that included the largely unexamined stories of the power of the sea, offering blacks perspective of a vast and interconnected world, and the connectivity instilled in the ability to share news across black communities
worldwide.