BALTIMORE IN THE mid-19th century stood as a middle ground for black Americans. Often spoken of as the capital of Black America, Baltimore could be heaven or hell, depending on a person's status as free born or slave. Though heavily Southern in sympathies, Baltimore also had the largest population of free blacks of any city in the nation. Baltimore's 25,000 free blacks included many prominent pastors, lawyers, physicians and teachers, making the city a center of black culture, scholarship, business and religion.
Despite this modicum of enlightenment, slavery still reigned. Blacks, bound in chains, were transported from Baltimore's port to plantations farther south, and it was in Baltimore's Fells Point shipyards that young Frederick Douglass was beaten as he served as a slave, caulking ships' hulls. But the maritime industries were also some of the few areas where blacks worked alongside whites before and after the Civil War.
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Fells Point was the first and primary place that many Southern blacks as well as European whites sought jobs and homes when arriving in Baltimore after the Civil War. The blacks lived in smaller homes behind the cobblestone streets because it was still against the law for whites and blacks to live on the same street. Originally settled in 1730 by William Fell, an English Quaker and ship's carpenter, Fells Point was one of the three original towns that became the nucleus for Baltimore. With deep water right up to the shore, Fells Point quickly grew as a center for shipbuilding and gave birth to the famous Baltimore clippers, fast sailboats used both for commerce and war.
At the close of the Civil War, more blacks found jobs in the shipyards and on the various boats sailing from the port. Baltimore's maritime industries have historically been interracial. The harbor was packed with myriad watercraft ranging from small scows carrying produce and seafood to large ocean-going steamships. The burgeoning oyster fishery required hundreds of boats and thousands of sailors to dredge, transport and process the harvest. Many captains and companies pragmatically hired crews with little regard to a sailor's skin color, and some blacks sailed their own boats.
To commemorate this rich African-American maritime heritage, the Living Classrooms Foundation and National Historic Seaport of Baltimore are joining with the city of Baltimore to construct the Frederick Douglass-Isaac Myers Maritime Park at the historic Chase's Wharf site in Fells Point. An ongoing project, the park will fully open next year and become a gateway to Fells Point, an integral part of the Baltimore Waterfront Promenade, and the waterfront's first multicultural, African-American heritage attraction.
The park's centerpiece will be a working re-creation of the first black-owned marine railway and shipyard in the United States, founded in 1868, by 15 black entrepreneurs. The Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Co., originally located just west of the new park, set a new standard by employing both blacks and whites, without discrimination.
Isaac Myers is the man most frequently identified with the founding of the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Co. He was born in Baltimore in 1835, the only son of free-born parents. At that time, Baltimore did not provide public schools for free black children; Myers received his early education from a local minister, the Rev. John Fortie.
As a teenager, with some basic schooling behind him, Myers became an apprentice caulker for James Jackson, a well-known ship caulker working on the clipper ships coming into Baltimore harbor. Until the late 19th century, ship caulkers were hired to apply pitch and gum to boats' wooden hulls, sealing the cracks between planks and beams. Caulkers were essential to shipbuilding and the jobs paid well, about $1.75 per day.
By the time Myers was 20, he had mastered the trade and supervised caulking on Baltimore's biggest clippers. Also at 20, he married Emma and began a family. They would eventually have three children. Just before the Civil War broke out, Myers went to work as a shipping clerk and chief porter for Woods, Bridges and Co., the largest wholesale grocery firm south of the Mason-Dixon line. He returned to the boatyards in 1865 with an understanding of finance and the business world beyond the shipyards.
When Myers joined with 14 other successful businessmen to found their shipyard, they represented the social, religious and political leadership in Baltimore's African-American community. All were respected members of the Bethel and Sharp Street AME churches.
They were very concerned that an influx of white skilled laborers, resentful about competition from black workers, were trying to remove the blacks from their jobs. Among the piers and shipyards, black caulkers and longshoremen faced an organized effort to have them dismissed.
In 1866, Myers and his group formed a cooperative company to purchase a shipyard, and continue to do business. However, no white shipyard owner was willing to sell or lease a shipyard directly to a black group. One of Myers' associates, John Smith, contacted William Applegarth, a well-known white businessman and friend of the black community, to act as an intermediary. Applegarth arranged for the group to obtain lot 42 on Philpot Street, two parcels with water frontage. They raised $40,000 and leased the property, but the actual provisions of the transaction were clouded and would ultimately lead to a lawsuit and contribute to the company's dissolution.
Within six months of its opening, the Chesapeake Marine Railway and Dry Dock Co. employed 300 black workers at $3-a-day wages. They had been able to obtain a number of government contracts and paid off their debts in five years. Myers had become primarily a public relations man for the company. His interests had been expanding elsewhere along with his commitments to the Republican party, Baltimore's religious community, and the black labor movement.
Black caulkers had organized as early as 1838 and, because of the importance of their trade, had successfully bargained with shipyard owners for decent wages and working conditions.
Most black caulkers were members of the Colored Caulkers Association, that functioned as both a union and beneficial society and was a forerunner of the Colored National Labor Society. As a result of Myers' work, the all-white National Labor Union, opened its conference to persons of all color in 1869. Myers was invited to speak at that convention, and was one of nine blacks attending. He was also elected president of the Colored National Labor Union, the first national organization of its kind.
Isaac Myers died in 1891 and, despite the significance of his contributions, he is little remembered today. Baltimore's new maritime park will correct that oversight. Located near the corner of Thames and Caroline streets, the park will serve as an entrance to historic Fells Point, one of the nation's oldest surviving maritime communities, with 350 original structures.
The park will also preserve the Sugar House, one of Baltimore's most historic waterfront properties. But, more than an engaging maritime history stop and working shipyard, the park will house the Crossroads Middle School and provide a multitude of other educational and vocational programs.
For more information, contact the Living Classrooms Foundation at 410/685-0295, or visit livingclass rooms.org.
REED HELLMAN is a freelance writer living in Alberton, Md. E-mail questions or comments to him at RHWay2Go@yahoo.com.