We took a New England Cruise from Manhattan, NY to Newport, RI, Martha’s Vineyard, MA, Bar Harbor, ME and St. John, New Brunswick, Canada.

We spent a full day exploring Martha’s Vineyard.  It is an island located south of Cape Cod in Massachusetts with pristine oceanfront landscape cooled by these a breezes.  It includes the smaller Chappaquiddick Island, which sometimes is or is not connected to the larger island.  Storms and hurricanes sometimes separate the islands.  The islands were last separated in 2007 and reconnected in 2015.  It is the 58th largest island in the United States, after Long Island and Mount Desert Island.  It was home to one of the earliest known deaf communities in the United States. The island has a special sign language “Martha’s Vineyard Sign Language”, that was developed on the island.

The island consist of most of Dukes County, MA.  The county also includes the Elizabeth Islands , as well as the islands of Normans Land.  This tiny island off Cape Cod remains one of the most popular and picturesque destinations in New England.  It is known as an affluent summer colony; and is accessible only by air or boat.  They have a growing year-round population.  The cost of living on the island is 60% higher than the national average, and housing prices are 96% higher.

We listened to live music, and had lunch in Oak Bluffs.  Oak Bluffs, is one of several historic African American American Summer resort communities along the Atlantic Seaboard founded in the 1890’s.  It is located on Martha’s Vineyard Island in Dukes County.  We walked along the Inkwell Beach in Oak Blusss, a part of Massachasettes Cape Cod Islands.  The “Inkwell” or Town Beach in Oak Bluffs is the name of the popular beach frequented by African Americans.  We saw the Flying Horse Carousel, the oldest carousel in continuous operation in the US.  We walked to the Inkwell Beach.  It is the most famous beach of any across the US to transform this odious nickname into an emblem of pride.  Methodist and Baptist revival meetings brought early white and black visitors to Oak Bluffs.   We had the absolute best clam chowder ever tasted!

In 1920, African American Islanders began offering accommodations in their small cottages that attracted black visitors from Boston, New York, Philadelphia, and other northeastern cities.  Women made up most of the first African American entrepreneurs and played a pivotal role in attracting and accommodating the growing number of black visitors.   African American women came to the Island as servants to white families with summer homes. These early black servants became property owners, rear-round residents, and small business entrepreneurs. We visited Shearer Cottage, founded by Charles and Henrietta Shearer in 1912 as a summer inn, began as a laundry in 1903.  This cottage is the oldest and most well-known of these establishments that catered specifically to African Americans. Their daughters, granddaughters, and great granddaughters have continued management of the family guest house unto the twenty first century.

As blacks grew more prosperous during and after World War II, many of them brought their families to Oak Bluffs.  In Oak Bluffs middle class black vacationers purchased cottages fro less than $30,000 from the 1950’s through the early 1970’s.  By 2010 many of these properties were worth fifteen to twenty times their original sale prices, making Oak Bluffs the wealthiest of the black resort communities.  By 2010, Brazilian and Eastern European workers became the service class.

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