Pwenner: Here we see the Reed, a canal boat that was typical in the late 19th Century. African Americans worked as deck hands on canal boats, but were banned from owning their own until after the Civil War. There were black boat captains during the 1870s. By the final years of the canal, however, only one African American canal boat family was still listed. Once boatbuilder Canal Towage began supplying the canal boats, the days of each boat having a unique name like the Reed faded into the past. Inst...

2024-02-19T23:56:09Z

Here we see the Reed, a canal boat that was typical in the late 19th Century. African Americans worked as deck hands on canal boats, but were banned from owning their own until after the Civil War. There were black boat captains during the 1870s. By the final years of the canal, however, only one African American canal boat family was still listed. Once boatbuilder Canal Towage began supplying the canal boats, the days of each boat having a unique name like the Reed faded into the past. Inst...

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== Summary ==
Here we see the Reed, a canal boat that was typical in the late 19th Century. African Americans worked as deck hands on canal boats, but were banned from owning their own until after the Civil War. There were black boat captains during the 1870s. By the final years of the canal, however, only one African American canal boat family was still listed.

Once boatbuilder Canal Towage began supplying the canal boats, the days of each boat having a unique name like the Reed faded into the past. Instead, the boats began to carry a simple boat number.

(Photo courtesy of the City of Brunswick, Maryland History Commission; Info excerpted from “Images of America: Brunswick” by Mary Rubin)

[[Category: Smoketown Potomac River and C&O Canal]]

File:Reed Canal Boat.jpg - Revision history