Sketch of Thomas Williams, a Black Sailor, by London portraitist John Downman (1750–1824). The sketch, in the collection of the Tate Museum , was drawn in Liverpool in 1815. According to the Tate, Thomas Williams had a connection with MP...

“The race question is extending itself upon the seas." At the beginning of the 19th Century, one out of five American sailors were black; at the start of the 20th Century, Black sailors in Brooklyn were facing severe job discrimination.  The...

Blacks were one of the first groups to arrive in Brooklyn during the Dutch colonial period, usually as enslaved people, though there were also freemen. To provide an overview of some early Black history, PortSide commissioned this article by Charles...