On this day in 1855, Captain Absalom Boston of Nantucket died. In an era when many African Americans worked as seamen, Absalom Boston stood out. In 1822 he captained an all-black crew on the whaleship Industry. That was but one unusual aspect of the voyage. Captains were usually respected but rarely liked. Boston's crew, however, had such a positive attitude toward him that they memorialized him in a ballad. He was a leader aboard ship and on land. When he retired from whaling, he combined a successful business with work on behalf of the island's black community. Although Absalom Boston had helped to integrate the island's public schools, when he died as a respected man of 70, he was buried in a segregated cemetery.