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If life can sometimes be stranger than fiction, the mid-19th century friendship between Pyrrhus Concer and Captain George Gilbert White, both of Southampton, surely qualifies as one of the most unusual.
That relationship will be the subject of a presentation by Tom Edmonds, executive director of the Southampton Historical Museum, on Wednesday, January 27, at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. The talk, “Pyrrhus Concer & Captain George White: Two Friends Who Transformed Southampton,” will cover their voyages at sea—12 in search of whales—and their short-lived Gold Rush trip in 1849 in the company of 11 whaling captains. Concer was a principal in the venture, according to Mr. Edmonds.
Although “nothing’s written down confirming their friendship”—records were sketchy at the museum until a professional staff was hired in 1995—“the two men lived only a block and a half from each other. Southampton was a small farming village and a whaling hub. Everyone knew everyone,” Mr. Edmonds said.
They lived parallel lives, Mr. Edmonds said, both sailing the high seas—adventures recorded in logs and diaries—and both leaving their mark on the town. He said it is his hope that his presentation will re-create the experience of their lives, as well as provide a glimpse into the cultural history of Southampton at that time.
“Theirs is quite a story,” he said, one he’s “been thinking about for over 10 years.” And one that deserves to be told, explained Brenda Simmons, co-founder and executive director of the African American Museum of the East End.
The ratification of the 13th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States 150 years ago this past December, which abolished slavery and involuntary servitude, may seem in the wake of so much Reconstruction violence a “pyrrhic” victory. And perhaps it so seemed to “Pyrrhus” Concer, a former slave born in Southampton 15 years after New York State passed the Gradual Emancipation Act, freeing children born after 1799, but indenturing them through 1827.
It is likely that Concer’s first name was meant, mockingly, to invoke Pyrrhus, the king of an Illyrian tribe in the Hellenistic period, reflecting a not uncommon naming practice in slave days. But the irony is that Concer rose to a rank and station that would have been undreamed of in antebellum years, and for some time after.
As his tombstone in the Old North End Cemetery near Windmill Lane in Southampton declares, “Though born a slave, he possessed those virtues, without which, kings are but slaves.”
His lifespan, from 1814 to 1897, coincides with that of George White, from 1819 to 1893, and White’s overlaps Herman Melville’s, from 1819 to 1891, whose mid-century stories and novels testify to the significant presence of blacks in the whaling industry in the late 18th to early 19th century.
Although Concer’s Southampton Village frame house was torn down last year, its wooden frame was saved, along with some historical artifacts, Mr. Edmonds noted. The village plans to restore it at its original location on Pond Lane, recently dedicated Pyrrhus Concer Way.
Meanwhile, Ms. Simmons said she is still digging to discover the mystery of Pyrrhus’s last name—not an easy task, considering black history was typically ignored. Even 20 years ago, when Southampton was holding its 350th anniversary celebration, she found that “most people had no clue about Pyrrhus Concer,” though a monument to him had been put up in Monument Park on Lake Agawam in the 1980s, she said.
Ms. Simmons, born and bred in Southampton, said she is eager to learn more information about “that extraordinary man.” Concer, said to be the son of Violet Williams, a slave owned by Nathan Cooper of Southampton, was sold at age 5 to the Charles Pelletreau family of Southampton. Though researchers argue about the legal nature of his status—slave or servant—the salient fact is that Concer overcame harsh conditions to become one of Southampton’s leading citizens: “one of the most respected residents of the village,” as his obituary in The Southampton Press put it on August 28, 1897.
He was a farmer, whaler, land owner, esteemed member of the Presbyterian Church and entrepreneur, having started a catboat ferry service across Lake Agawam to the village for 10 cents a ride. This past September, on the occasion of his 200th birthday, he was honored with a formal dedication of a new ferry named for him.
But it is his reported courageous achievements at sea that truly amaze, especially his skill steering the whale ship Manhattan, captained by Mercator Cooper of Southampton, into Tokyo harbor in 1848, a time when foreigners were forbidden to enter Japan, and then in rescuing the crew of a shipwrecked Japanese vessel.
Captain White, of course, is a Southampton legend. Hailed as a daring, risk-taking hero, his rescues were of two kinds: he often rushed a lifeboat to stranded vessels caught on the outer bar, but he also saved local bays and beaches from commercial abuse and injustices that would have destroyed the character and history of the village. An extensive article about him by Dr. T.G. Thomas in “Portrait and Biographical Record of Suffolk County, Long Island,” circa 1896, repeatedly praises White’s “dauntless courage” and sympathy toward others who suffered sorrow.
Dr. Thomas, a founder of the Southampton summer colony, emphasizes White’s humble character and work ethic as one who worked himself up from cabin boy to boat steerer to mate and, finally, to captain, eventually becoming president of the Board of Trustees of Southampton, a position he held for 25 years.
“The relationship between these two men, both from opposite cultures and race, shows the spirit of tolerance was still active in the 19th century,” Mr. Edmonds said, “and is a lesson for us today.”
“Pyrrhus Concer & Captain George White: Two Friends Who Transformed Southampton” will be held on Wednesday, January 27, at noon at the Rogers Memorial Library in Southampton. Admission is free. For more information, call (631) 283-2494, or visit southamptonhistoricalmuseum.org.
on Jan 19, 2016