“Preserved on the Mighty Waters” Zoom Lecture

Please enjoy the recorded lecture. To view this video with captions, click on the box with letters CC from the onscreen menu.

Jason R. Mancini, Ph.D., Executive Director of CT Humanities, presents the program “Preserved on the Mighty Waters: Indians, Maritime Labor, and Communities of Color in Southern New England.” This program was hosted by Otis Library in partnership with the Norwich Historical Society. This program was presented on February 23, 2022.

Over 9,000,000 acres of Indian Country in southern New England and Long Island were reduced to fewer than 30,000 acres by the American Revolution. Indians across the region adjusted in different ways to this rapidly changing world. One important and largely unseen shift involved the participation of Indian men in various forms of maritime labor – from shipbuilding to whaling. This talk focuses on the hundreds of Indians – and other men of color – who found work in the customs district of New London and explores their “roots” and “routes,” the global social networks they formed, and their traveling histories from the objects they collected and stories they told.

Dr. Jason Mancini presenting on Native American Mariners

Dr. Jason Mancini joined CT Humanities as Executive Director in 2018. He is also co-founder of Akomawt Educational Initiative and the former Executive Director of the Mashantucket Pequot Museum and Research Center. Currently the Mellon Visiting Fellow in Slavery and Justice at Brown University, Dr. Mancini previously served as Adjunct Professor of Anthropology at the University of Connecticut, Visiting Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Connecticut College, Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Brown University, and Social Sciences Instructor at Sea for Sea Education Association (SEA).