Exonian Profiles
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The Rev. Frank Dorman ’44 Takes His
Activism in a New Direction: The Past
What the Rev. Frank Dorman ’44 describes as his “passionate” involvement with peace and justice ministry has led him to some pretty interesting places. In 1965, he took part in the historic march from Selma to Montgomery; during the 1980s, he traveled to Nicaragua three times. In the process, he has also compiled an impressive arrest record, much of it for his opposition to the Vietnam War: in all, he has been arrested 20 times for acts of nonviolent civil disobedience and gone to jail twice. But lately, Dorman’s activism has taken him in a different direction: to 18th- and 19th-century Nantucket, to research the lives of the island’s African-American slaves and their descendants. Dorman’s forays into the past began with his own family: In 1994, he completed a family genealogy, Thomas Dorman of Topsfield, Massachusetts (1600-1670): Twelve Generations of Descendants. In 1996, in the spring issue of the Exeter Bulletin, he published an article on PEA alumni who fought in the Civil War. After watching the Civil War film Glory, Dorman became interested in the descendants of the black members of the Massachusetts 54th and 55th Regiments, as well as other African-American military units. That interest resulted in another publication, Twenty Families of Color in Massachusetts 1742-1998, in which Dorman documented “hundreds of living descendants of these Civil War soldiers and sailors.” Dorman’s latest endeavor is the result of a rainy PEA mini-reunion on Nantucket in 1997. In lieu of beaches and outdoor recreation, Dorman recalls that he and his Exeter classmates “spent much of the weekend in libraries and museums.” A portrait in the Whaling Museum of the Nantucket Historical Society caught his attention. “It was,” he says, “strikingly different from the others. The gentle, kind expression contrasted with the stern visages of his fellow captains. But what really made Captain Absalom Boston stand out was the hue of his skin: Boston (1785-1855) was a person of color, grandson of a freed slave and son of a Nantucket Indian woman.” Thus began Dorman’s quest for information on the families of slaves who lived and worked on the island. After slavery was abolished in Massachusetts, many former slaves remained on Nantucket and made their living at sea. Dorman concentrated on two of these families; the Boston and Pompey families. “While the Bostons and Pompeys remained on Nantucket,” he says, “the research methods were similar for both. Deeds, birth and death records and trips to the so-called ‘Colored Cemetery,’ were primary sources. But federal census records tracing African and Native Americans on Nantucket were sketchy.” With the end of the whaling industry in the mid-19th century, Dorman’s job got harder. “Many family members were employed in the industry and left when it died. For the most part the Bostons went west in search of gold. I have met several Boston descendants in Oakland, California. The Pompeys stayed closer to home, and many settled among the Wampanoag Indians in the Mashpee area.” Dorman plans to publish his current work, now expanded to 14 families, later this year, but a few mysteries remain. “Right now I am researching Abraham Lincoln Thompson. When I was studying records in Mashpee I came across his death certificate and his occupation was listed as ‘lion tamer.’ His wife’s probate records indicate that she bequeathed a photo of a lion named ‘Wallace’ to a friend. I am about to visit an archivist in Mashpee who may help me resolve that one.” And solve it he will, with the same determination that has characterized all his quests from Selma to Mashpee. —Julie Quinn |
