Nancy Michael

Nancy Michael

The first mention of Nancy was after Colonel Cornelius Bassett’s death in 1779. The description of his estate described "one Negro boy, Pero, 33 pounds. One Negro woman, Chloe 27 years ... 150 pounds. One garl, Nancy 7 years ... 80 pounds." These possessions were sold to a man from Tisbury named Joseph Allen.

Shortly thereafter she became known as Nancy Michael. No one really knows where Michael comes from. The only connection found was that of a boy named Caesar Michael. He was connected to the Bassett estate in Chilmark. Nathaniel Bassett was chosen to be a guardian of Caesar until he reached the age of fourteen. He was given this job because Caesar had inherited property rights from his mother.

After being sold to Joseph Allen he reportedly “held and used her as a slave for a series of years.” In 1812 she “fell into distress in Edgartown.” Eventually in 1851 the town of Edgartown sued the town of Tisbury to get money for supporting Nancy. They tried this because Edgartown figured that since Nancy was enslaved in Tisbury she was Tisbury’s responsibility.

The case was heard at the Barnstable Superior court. The town of Tisbury ended up winning. They won claiming Nancy was never actually a slave because slavery had been abolished in 1780. What the court did not realize though was that Tisbury had, in previous years paid to support one of Nancy’s children born in 1810. They missed this because the record of it had been destroyed in a fire in 1827.

In 1857 there was an obituary published in the Vineyard Gazette for Nancy. The obituary said Nancy was “naturally possessed of kind feelings, she was very fond of children and unusually attentive to their wants.” This was contradictory to a later statement that said she was “possessed of a strong natural minds, she acquired great influence over some of our people, by many of whom she was looked on as a witch.” She was said to have supposed powers where she could give whale ships good or bad luck before a voyage. The captains of leaving ships would go and pay her for her services. This would then give them good luck on the voyage. But those who did not request her services were said to incur bad luck.

It seems obvious that Nancy Michael made most of her money off of superstitious sailors.