Absalom Boston was a wealthy man — a landowner, a local leader and quite literally the captain of his own ship, whaling vessel called The Industry. He and other members of Nantucket’s black community petitioned the island’s white leaders in hopes of getting their children enrolled in the local public high school. Boston filed suit against the town on behalf of his daughter, Phebe Ann, in 1845, and Massachusetts desegregated its schools the following year.
