Revisiting Black History on Martha’s Vineyard. Articles - Vineyard Living - African American Heritage Trail – The Road from Slavery to Freedom - Martha's Vineyard Online - The Official Site of Martha's Vineyard. The efforts of the MV African American Heritage Trail organization and the Heritage Trail History Project have done much to chronicle the island’s rich African American tradition.
Flight from Slavery Two sites on the trail marked with plaques honor brave locals who aided runaway slaves in their quest for freedom. The first plaque, located on tribal grounds in Aquinnah, commemorates a group of Wampanoags who hid a fugitive slave who had escaped from a boat in the harbor. The tribal members risked prosecution in defying the Fugitive Slave Act, and resisted the temptation of bounty money, to conceal the escapee in Aquinnah. They then took him to Menemsha to board a boat to New Bedford. The anonymous fishermen who stowed him aboard the boat are honored with a second plaque in Menemsha.
From Misery to Prosperity – a Former Slave’s Story The Shearer Cottage in Oak Bluffs was the first historic site to be dedicated on the Heritage Trail. More Sharing ServicesShare. Black Men's Jail Time Hits Entire Communities. Martha's Vineyard Guide - SoulOfAmerica. About an hour's drive from Boston, the island of Martha's Vineyard is a true New England vacation gem.
Naturally beautiful with picturesque cliffs, beautiful beaches, rolling hills, and scenic flatlands, the island is enhanced by warm-to-hot temperatures in the Summer, there is a profusion of color from the diverse tree and plant life in the Fall, crisp air and picturesque snow in the Winter, and the blossoming hues of flora in Spring. Martha’s Vineyard encompasses six major towns: Aquinnah (formerly called "Gay Head"), Chilmark, Edgartown, Oak Bluffs, West Tisbury, and Vineyard Haven, each possessing its own charm. You’ll find a variety of charming boutiques, antique stores, coffee houses, restaurants, galleries, and intimate bed and breakfast inns, plus scenic bike paths, picturesque walking and nature trails, stately homes, and magnificent beaches. Is Martha's Vineyard America’s Black Resort? No, but its distinctly welcoming to Black folks and everyone else.
Black Inns Dining Out. The African American Heritage Trail of Martha's Vineyard, MA. Columns: A magical stay on Martha's Vineyard. By BILL MAXWELL © St.
Petersburg Times,published August 19, 2001 MARTHA'S VINEYARD -- If this sun-baked island in the northern Atlantic is Sodom or Gomorrah, then I am right at home, in my element, as it were. Mellow red wine flows, cold beer brings friends together, extraordinarily beautiful women and handsome dudes decorate the sidewalks. The aromas of fine cuisines beckon all around as yachts slice through turquoise waters. This is the summer season on Martha's Vineyard. Without much effort, the visitor can easily pretend to be in a foreign country. I have the good fortune of spending an eight-day vacation here with friends in Oak Bluffs. Besides its physical beauty, Martha's Vineyard's esprit de corps is, well, something big to write home about. Most Vineyarders are proud of the Clinton connection, and his arrival always prompts an announcement, such as this headline of Aug. 8 in the Vineyard Gazette: "Clinton Family is Expected on the Vineyard Tomorrow.
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