Revolutionary War continued...

AN IMPORTANT 1775 REVOLUTIONARY WAR PERIOD COVER FROM WILLIAM ROTCH, THE PREEMINENT WHALING MERCHANT ON NANTUCKET ISLAND, TO JAMES PEMBERTON IN PHILADELPHIA VIA THE CONGRESSIONAL POST IN NEW YORK CITY.

In 1775 the community leaders on Nantucket Island attempted to steer a course of neutrality in the war against England, hoping to maintain the whaling industry which was so vital to its local economy. Nantucketers justified their position with their Quaker beliefs. Colonists on the mainland were suspicious of the islanders and regarded their professed "neutrality", "pacificism" and "special status" with England as traitorous. On May 23, 1775, one hundred provincial soldiers landed on the island and commandeered supplies and whaleboats. Between May and July 1775, the Continental Congress put Nantucket under embargo out of concern that the British would obtain supplies and aid from Nantucketers.

This cover carried letters written by William Rotch in August and September 1775 to John Pemberton, a prominent Quaker merchant in Philadelphia. Rotch is arguably the most important figure in the 18th century whaling industry. In August 1775, Rotch had been called to appear before a committee of the Provincial Congress to defend his actions in refusing to surrender a supply of bayonets he obtained from the estate of a Boston merchant. He argued that his Quaker beliefs precluded him from turning over instruments "used for the destruction of mankind." Also at this time Rotch was actively petitioning the British ministry for the return of five of his ships seized by the British in September 1775. Rotch later became involved in various efforts to revive Nantucketers' whaling business, which had been decimated by the war (source: Leviathan: The History of Whaling in America, Eric Jay Dolin). (Image)