This week we'll travel back to the early 18th century (and the middle of the Pacific) with In the Heart of the Sea! Join us to learn more about issues of race and ethnicity on whaling ships, Herman Melville, cannibalism, the mysterious skeletons found in a cave on Henderson Island, and more!

Sources:

Race and the Crew: Nancy Shoemaker, Native American Whalemen and the World: Indigenous Encounters and the Contingency of Race (Chapel Hill: UNC Press, 2015). Nancy Shoemaker, "Mr. Tashtego: Native American Whalemen in Antebellum New England," Journal of the Early Republic 33:1 (Spring 2013): 109-132. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23392572 Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (New York: Penguin, 2000). Thomas Nickerson, Owen Chase, and Others, The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale: First-Person Accounts (New York: Penguin, 2000). Timothy G. Lynch, "Black Ahab of the Bay: William T. Shorey and the San Francisco Whale Fishery," Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Power in Maritime America ed. Glenn Gordinier, 135-41 (Mystic, CT: Mystic Seaport Museum, 2008). Marilyn Halter, Between Race and Ethnicity: Cape Verdean American Immigrants, 1860-1965 (University of Illinois, 1993). Lawrence C. Howard, "A Note on New England Whaling and Africa Before 1860," Negro History Bulletin 22:1 (October 1958): 13-16. https://www.jstor.org/stable/44215363 Kelly K. Chaves, "Before the First Whalemen: The Emergence and Loss of Indigenous Maritime Autonomy in New England, 1672-1740," The New England Quarterly 87:1 (March 2014): 46-71. https://www.jstor.org/stable/43285053

Film Background: Scout Tafoya, The Unloved, In the Heart of the Sea: https://vimeo.com/412586427 Perri Nemiroff, "Ron Howard Discusses Making In the Heart of the Sea With a Low Budget Mentality," Collider: https://collider.com/ron-howard-interview-in-the-heart-of-the-sea/ Matt Zoller Seitz, Review of In the Heart of the Sea, Rogerebert.com: https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/in-the-heart-of-the-sea-2015 Interview with Tom Holland, In the Heart of the Sea: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_RsWoxF_UD8

Melville and Hawthorne: Steven B. Herrmann, "Melville's Portrait of Same-Sex Marriage in Moby Dick," Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche 4, 3 (2010) Charles N. Watson, Jr. "The Estrangement of Hawthorne and Melville," New England Quarterly 46, 3 (1973) Melville and Hawthorne, Excerpt from The Life and Works of Hermann Melville, available at http://www.melville.org/hawthrne.htm "Read a Love Letter from Hermann Melville to Nathaniel Hawthorne," LitHub, available at https://lithub.com/read-a-love-letter-from-herman-melville-to-nathaniel-hawthorne/ Herman Melville, Moby Dick, Full Text available at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2701/2701-h/2701-h.htm

Cannibalism: Nathaniel Philbrick, In the Heart of the Sea: The Tragedy of the Whaleship Essex (New York: Penguin, 2000). Thomas Nickerson, Owen Chase, and Others, The Loss of the Ship Essex, Sunk by a Whale: First-Person Accounts (New York: Penguin, 2000). A.W.B. Simpson, "Cannibals at Common Law," The Law School Record 27 (Fall 1981): 3-10. Duncan Frost, "'Provisions being scarce and pale death drawing nigh,/They'd try to cast lots to see who should die': The Justification of Shipwreck Cannibalism in Popular Balladry," Exchanges: The Interdisciplinary Research Journal 7:2 (2020): 17-34. Paul Cowdell, "Cannibal Ballads: Not Just a Question of Taste..." Folk Music Journal 9:5 (2010): 723-747. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25654209

Henderson Island: Vincent H. Stefan et al, "Henderson Island Crania and their Implications for Southeastern Polynesian Prehistory," The Journal of Polynesian Society 111, 4 (2002) Marshall I. Weisler, "The Settlement of Marginal Polynesia: New Evidence from Henderson Island," Journal of Field Archaeology 21, 1 (1994) Owen Chase, Narrative of the Most Extraordinary and Distressing Shipwreck of the Whale-Ship Essex. 1821 Thomas Ferrell Heffernan, Stove By a Whale: Owen Chase and the Essex. Wesleyan University Press, 2013 F.R. Fosberg et al, "Henderson Island (Southeastern Polynesia): Summary of Current Knowledge," Atoll Research Bulletin, no 272. 1983.