Author Constance Escher, discusses her recently-published book about a formerly enslaved woman named Betsey Stockton who circumnavigated the globe in 1826. She shares the research that shaped the book, including several research trips to the NHA Research Library. Specifically, Escher examines early portraits of missionaries and details on the captain of Stockton’s ship, Reuben Clasby, from Nantucket. While examining material from the NHA archive, Constance discovered findings on the Essex survivor Charles Ramsdell, who served as boat-steerer on Stockton’s ship. These visits to the Research Library, made over twenty years, allowed Escher to unravel another important puzzle of Nantucket’s history and to publish her book on Betsey Stockton titled "She Calls Herself Betsey Stockton: The Illustrated Odyssey of Princeton Slave."

This presentation is part of the Nantucket Historical Association's Food for Thought Lecture Series at the Nantucket Whaling Museum.