Nantucket's People of Color is a fascinating study of Nantucket's African population from historical, cultural, and racial perspectives. While most other Africans were sold into slavery and bondage, the African-Americans and Cape Verdeans on Nantucket worked as free people and established communities and institutions such as schools and churches. This anthology examines the relationships that developed between Africans, Quakers, others of European descent, and Cape Verdeans on Nantucket and the events and controversies that both united and divided the larger community along "racial" lines.

This anthology is the culmination of more than ten years of scholarly research on the culture and history of Nantucket Island by James Bradford Ames Scholars. The James Bradford Ames Fellowship Program was established at the University of Massachusetts Boston to foster research into the history and culture of African-Americans and Cape Verdeans on Nantucket.