Biography
William P. Powell Sr
William
Black Son of the Ocean
Letter from William P. Powell Sr. to American Seamen’s Friend Society, May 30, 1866
William P. Powell Sr. was a prominent African American abolitionist with Indigenous ancestry. He spent his early career as a seaman. Powell met Mercy Haskins in the whaling port of New Bedford, Massachusetts. The couple married in 1832 and had seven children. Inspired by his time at sea, Powell established a trade union and boarding home for Black sailors to aid the “moral and social elevation of the black Sons of the Ocean.”
I have been encouraged to open a boarding house for Seamen. . . . Now as I am engaged in a field of labor, though perhaps not considered directly antislavery work, yet at the same time the ostensible object of which is the moral and social elevation of the black Sons of the Ocean, many of whom have tasted the bitter Cup of Slavery in Slave ports when in the due prosecution of their lawful concerns.
William P. Powell Sr., 1862
The Colored Sailors’ Home
The Seamen’s Exchange and the Cherry Street Home, ca. 1870
Sometime between 1838 and 1840, the Powells moved to New York City and founded the Colored Sailors’ Home. The boarding house provided Black seafarers with food, clothing, and shelter. It served as a hotel, school, union hall, and refuge for people escaping slavery by sea from the southern United States.
The Powells Move to Liverpool
Letter from William P. Powell Sr. to the board of Liverpool Infirmary School of Medicine, May 5, 1852
William P. Powell Sr.’s list of donations to the Boston Anti-Slavery Bazaar, October 30, 1857
In 1851, the Powell family moved to Liverpool, England, to escape discrimination in the United States and the threat of the Fugitive Slave Act. While living in Liverpool, the Powells supported people escaping from slavery who arrived in England by sea, hosted visiting American abolitionists, and raised funds for antislavery causes.
Along with continuing their abolitionist work, the Powells found opportunities in the bustling port of Liverpool. Their son William P. Powell Jr. became a “free student” at the Liverpool Infirmary School of Medicine. In a letter, Powell Sr. explained that “the prejudices of the American people” had made it “impossible” for his children to gain “education and . . . opportunities for a livelihood.”
The Port of Liverpool, 19th century
William Powell Jr. and the Civil War
William P. Powell Jr. in his U.S. Army uniform, ca. 1863
Letter from William P. Powell Sr. to William Lloyd Garrison, July 14, 1862
The Powell family returned to New York during the American Civil War and opened a new boarding house for Black seamen.
In May 1863, William P. Powell Jr. joined the United States Army as a surgeon. Powell Jr. was one of only 13 Black surgeons to serve during the Civil War. He was the chief surgeon at the Contraband Hospital in Washington, D.C., for Black soldiers and escapees from slavery.
The Powells Return to Liverpool
1911 U.K. Census for Kirkdale nursing home, Liverpool
Little is known about William P. Powell Sr.’s later life. Members of the Powell family resettled in Liverpool after the Civil War. Mercy Powell lived with her daughter Sarah, who worked as a shopkeeper, while another son, Isaiah , was a barrel maker. William Powell Jr. was recorded in the 1911 U.K. Census as a “widower . . . formerly a physician and surgeon.”
Related Stories
Education for All
African Americans established schools for their communities and have taken innovative approaches to education while challenging segregation and discrimination.
Crossing the Color Line to Freedom
William and Ellen Craft devised an ingenious plan to escape slavery that took them across race, gender, and class lines.
Marème Diarra
Marème Diarra escaped slavery in Mauritania and settled outside of Saint-Louis, Senegal. Learn how Diarra is remembered by her descendants and community.