African American Heritage Trail Honors Story of Esther
Vineyard Gazzette - Wednesday, July 14, 2021 - 12:39pm

A new site on the African American Heritage Trail of Martha’s Vineyard will be dedicated on July 27, 2021 at 3 p.m.

The site at Memorial Wharf in Edgartown honors the story of Esther, an enslaved woman who escaped from her captors in 1743 in the Edgartown Harbor.

Esther was being transported from Boston to North Carolina aboard the sloop Endeavor to be returned to enslavement. According to testimony given by the ship’s crew, while the vessel sat in the harbor overnight, Esther despite having her feet bound to a crowbar, her hands tied behind her back and being put down in the hold, was able to jump overboard and make it to shore and freedom.

The celebration on July 27 will honor the story of Esther and the diverse groups of people who helped her. After the ceremony there will a reception at Rosewater Market.
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Escape of a Fugitive Slave from a vessel in Edgartown Harbor
Vineyard Gazette
Friday, June 2, 1854 - 9:17am

The public mind has been greatly occupied recently with several cases of reclamation of fugitive slaves. We give, in another column, some account of the capture and return to bondage of a brother and two nephews of the Rev. Dr. Pennington, a well known and highly esteemed colored minister of New York; also of the case of Burns, in Boston.

Below will be found the particulars of the escape of a fugitive from a vessel in our own harbor.

July the 28th A. D. 1743.
The deposition of Thomas Taylor, mate of the sloop Endeavor, and George Edwards, John Flowers, and James Fleet, sailors on board the said sloop, all of full age, testifieth and saith that there was on board said sloop Endeavor a certain Indian woman, named Esther, which we brought from Boston to carry to North Carolina to her master, which we understood belonged unto Thomas Williams, of said North Carolina.

And on our passage we put into the harbor at Edgartown, on the twenty seventh day of July instant; and, in the evening, we bound her feet to a crowbar, and tied her hands behind her, and put her down into the hold, and laid the hatches. How she got loose we know not; but, in the morning, she was gone, with the sloop’s long boat.

Which Indian woman, we understood, came privately in said sloop from North Carolina.
And we were all on board, but asleep, when she went away, and knew nothing of her going away.

And we further know that she was kept in the jail in Boston, until we were ready to sail; and, just before we sailed, we went up to the jail, and fetched her down, and put her on board the above said sloop to convey her, as aforesaid, to the port of North Carolina to her said master.
And further saith that Capt. Nathan Bunn is now commander of the said sloop.

Source for memorial image: https://vineyardgazette.com/.../african-american-heritage...

Source of newspaper ad announcing Esters self -emancipation: https://vineyardgazette.com/.../escape-fugitive-slave...