African Americans Pilots in the Southern Maritime Trade

FAIN: HR-50366-07

Maurice Kaye Melton
Albany State University (Albany, GA 31705-2796)

This work will tell the story of African Americans who worked as maritime pilots on the southern coasts from the 1600s to the end of the Civil War. Using business and government records, letters, newspapers, and family histories, I will show the way black professionals exercised authority and responsibility in one of the few integrated professions in the antebellum South, and lived middle class lives of respect and financial well-being. The project will produce a book and companion Web site, as well as articles and presentations, for an audience of both scholarly students of southern history, and the larger field of interested public.

Associated Products

The Best Station of Them All: The Savannah Squadron, 1861-1865 (Book)
Title: The Best Station of Them All: The Savannah Squadron, 1861-1865
Author: Maurice Melton
Abstract: A study of the Confederate Naval Squadron in Savannah, Ga., and its relationship to and effects on the city, economy, and people.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://http://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=The+Best+Station+of+Them+All%3A+The+Savannah+Squadron%2C+1861-1865
Access Model: open access
Publisher: University of Alabama Press
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 9780817317638
Copy sent to NEH?: No

Prizes

Researcher of the Year
Date: 3/14/2013
Organization: Albany State University

Douglas Southall Freeman History Prize
Date: 4/12/2013
Organization: Military Order of the Stars and Bars

Warren F. Spencer Award
Date: 2/8/2011
Organization: Georgia Association of Historians
Abstract: Best article, "African-American Pilots in the Southern Maritime Trade, 1640-1865," Journal of the Georgia Association of Historians.

"Moses Dallas and R.B.K. Murphy: Two Georgia Coastal Pilots and the Capture of the U.S.S. Water Witch" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Moses Dallas and R.B.K. Murphy: Two Georgia Coastal Pilots and the Capture of the U.S.S. Water Witch"
Author: Maurice Melton
Abstract: Two Georgia maritime pilots, a black Confederate Navy pilot and a white Union Navy pilot and their roles in the cutting out and capture of the blockader U.S.S. Water Witch in Ossabaw Sound, Ga., June 12-13, 1864.
Date: 09/04/2013
Primary URL: http://www.shipsofthesea.org/
Conference Name: Coastal Connections Speakers Series, Ships of the Sea Maritime Museum, Savannah, Ga.

"Who Owns Moses Dallas?" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Who Owns Moses Dallas?"
Author: Maurice Melton
Abstract: The controversy and confusion over the identity of two men named Moses Dallas and their roles on the Southeastern coast during the Civil War.
Date: 04/20/2012
Primary URL: http://kellykathleenchave.wix.com/nasoh
Conference Name: North American Society for Oceanic History annual meeting, Galveston, Tex.

"Who Owns Moses Dallas?" (Conference Paper/Presentation)
Title: "Who Owns Moses Dallas?"
Author: Maurice Melton
Abstract: The controversy and confusion over the identity of two men named Moses Dallas and their roles on the Southeastern coast during the Civil War.
Date: 02/08/2012
Primary URL: http://kellykathleenchave.wix.com/nasoh
Conference Name: Georgia Association of Historians Annual Meeting, Macon, Ga.

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