James Forten Dunbar

Jim was born in Philadelphia, the fourth and youngest child of a free man of color named William Dunbar. Jim’s mother was Abigail Forten Dunbar, the sister of an African American abolitionist and sailmaker, James Forten, for whom Jim was named. William died when Jim was about six years old, but his famous uncle, shown here, became his mentor and inspiration.

James Forten served in the American Revolutionary War, including seven months as a prisoner of war, and remained a staunch patriot. He bought his boss’s sail-making business, turning it into one of the most successful in the city, and he was one of the most wealthy local businessmen, black or white. He championed the cause of abolition throughout his life.

As a boy, Jim Dunbar must have been instilled by his uncle with a love of sails and the sea. When he was 11 he was employed as a ship’s boy and had paperwork to prove it, shown here.

Trans-Atlantic shipping was being disrupted by British naval vessels, attempting to restrict U.S. trade with France. They boarded American merchant ships and hijacked crew members they claimed were British subjects. “Impressment,” as it was known, had been a recurring problem since Colonial times, so Congress passed an act in 1796 to protect American merchant seamen. 

Customs agents were required to issue Seamen’s Protection Certificates, which verified their identity and nationality. Officially known as “Citizen Affidavits of U.S. Born Seamen,” this was an especially critical document for Jim because it clearly includes the words “Born free.”

Life on the sea was easier than life on land for a single black man in Antebellum America. Jim was employed on ships in what is known as the Merchant Marine. The term is used to describe civilian commercial vessels and those who operate them, being registered in a certain country. The Merchant Marine is not a formal branch of the service; merchant mariners transport cargo and passengers for profit during peacetime, but they can be also called upon to deliver troops and military supplies in wartime.

It could be said the U.S. Navy didn’t establish an impressive profile for itself until the Civil War began, being more interdependent with the Merchant Marine until then. Jim’s naval enlistment record in 1861 states he had 35 years prior experience. This is in line with other records showing he joined the Navy in 1826 after 16 years in the Merchant Marine. With his discharge 39 years later in 1865, he is in the running for the longest-serving African American in naval history, not counting his Merchant Marine experience.

Throughout his service he was listed as a sailmaker, drawing on the skills his uncle’s taught him. Jim used needles, seam rubbers, serving mallets, and tools like marlinspikes and fids for splicing ropes, plus grommets for reinforcing holes in the sails.

Seaman Dunbar circumnavigated the globe three times in the pre-Civil War years. On one voyage in 1839 he was on the frigate John Adams during the second Sumatran expedition. Along with the frigate Columbia, the two ships fired on the island of Sumatra in what is today Indonesia. The attack was in retaliation for the slaughter of another American ship’s crew a few months earlier.

In the 1850s Jim was stationed on receiving ships (older vessels used to house new recruits) in both the Boston and New York Navy Yards. During the Civil War, he saw action on a number of ships which were part of blockading squadrons. Their objective was to prevent  goods and supplies from entering or leaving Southern ports.

The job of cook was added to his regular role as sailmaker on each ship. He was on the sloop-of-war Lackawanna, shown here, when it captured two ships in 1863 off Mobile Bay. For most of 1864  he worked on the tugboat Daffodil in the waters off South Carolina. It’s not known exactly when he was transferred to the screw sloop Tuscarora, but it was presumably during the Battle of Fort Fisher in January, 1865.

Jim was transferred to the New York Naval Hospital in March of that year for rheumatism and incontinence. Senility was also diagnosed, so he was discharged but remained at the hospital in New York until 1867. Then he was admitted to the U.S. Naval Asylum (or Naval Home) in Philadelphia. He wasn’t confined to the grounds and could travel during the day as he wished. 

Jim did that in 1969 and was involved in an incident that was reported by the local newspaper over a period of several weeks. The three stories are reported here. He lost some money, then he lost the court case because he lost his memory of who attacked him. Late in the following year he died of senile debility.

In 2020 a new “replica” grave marker was installed (shown above), replacing an illegible gravestone. Unfortunately, two “grave” errors were committed. Death and burial records confirm Jim died in 1870, not 1869. And, based on the certificate shown above showing he was 11 years old in 1810, he would have been 71 when he died, not 77.