LIGHT, Allen aka Black Steward
LIGHT, Allen aka Black Steward (c. 1805- ), African American mariner who was born in Philadelphia around 1805. Light was granted sailor’s papers in New York City in 1827. Light eventually became a crew member for the ship the Pilgrim, made famous by Richard Henry Dana’s Two Years before the Mast which chronicled the vessel’s voyage to California in 1835. He deserted the Pilgrim at Santa Barbara to hunt sea otter. In 1836 Light joined with other Americans in support of Juan Bautista Alvarado's revolt against Mariano Chico, the recently appointed governor of Alta California. Light helped Alvarado assume the role of governor by participating in a march on Los Angeles that caused Governor Chico to flee. By 1839 Light had become a Mexican citizen, and he was so well trusted that following his participation in an investigation on illegal hunting practices in the Santa Barbara area, Governor Alvarado commissioned him to stop the illegal hunting of otter for the entire province by appointing Light as "principle representative of the national armada, assigned to the branch of sea otter hunting." Light continued hunting sea otters for the next two years sometimes traveling as far south San Juan Capistrano. In 1842, he rejoined two former partners, George Nidever and Isaac Sparks to hunt in Baja California. That autumn the trio arrived in San Diego bearing $4,000 worth of furs. By the early 1840s Light settled in San Diego and had become an employer of otter hunters. An 1851 census revealed that Light had moved north to the California gold country. The date of Light’s death is unknown.
“On November 21st, [Captain John] Bancroft, having had an altercation with one of his hunters in the morning, received a volley of musket-balls in the back while standing at the gangway looking over the ship’s side, and fell mortally wounded. Mrs. Bancroft threw herself upon her husband's body, and was terribly wounded by a second volley from the muskets of the savages. A seaman, attempting to arm himself, was also killed; and then the Indians, seizing the tons [?] forced Robinson, the mate, to direct her course to the north. When the Kanakas reached their home, they landed in their canoes, and allowed the Llama, stripped of all they could carry away, to continue her voyage. She arrived at Honolulu January 13, 1839; and on the 27th [January 1839] Mrs. Bancroft died there from the effect of her wounds. F. D. Atherton, notifying Thomas O. Larkin from Honolulu of what had happened, adds: "Sparks may now have the run of the whole coast without interruption, as there will be no more vessels fitted out from here." On the very day of Mrs. Bancroft's death, Governor Alvarado, having become convinced somewhat tardily that Bancroft was taking otter illegally on the coast, appointed the negro Allen G. Light a 'comisano general' to put a stop to such proceedings, using force if necessary! [H. H. Bancroft. History of California, Volume 4, page 91].
“Four years earlier, in 1835, Allen Light had arrived on the California coast as a foreigner. Within four years this black man had at some point become a Mexican citizen and a trusted agent of Governor Alvarado's. Yet, Allen Light's acceptance in Mexican California is not as remarkable as it might seem. Although discrimination on the basis of skin color existed in California, it was less pronounced than in the United States at the same time. Indeed, perhaps twenty percent if the so-called “Spanish” pioneers of California were part negro in 1790. Despite considerable racial mixture, negro characteristics still remained evident in the 1830s among some of California's most prominent citizens. Pío Pico is, perhaps, the best known example.”
A Black American in Mexican San Diego Edited and Translated By David J. Weber
The current archaeological restoration being done in San Diego's Old Town has yielded numerous artifacts which more often than not leave their finder wondering to whom they belonged, from where they came, and how they got to San Diego. Only on rare occasions does an adobe building yield an artifact which "speaks"—a written document. One of these unusual moments occurred in Old Town in April 1948, when two documents were found hidden in the wall of the Casa de Machado.
The papers were found in the lower left-hand corner of a window well, in a space created deliberately by using half-size adobe blocks. The hiding place, which had been secure for perhaps one hundred years, was discovered accidentally when a heater was being installed in the Machado Chapel and the window was being reworked to convert it into a vent. After their discovery, the documents became the property of the Old San Diego Memorial Church, which occupied the Machado house from 1941 to 1969. In the latter year, when the Machado Chapel was turned over to Old Town State Park, the papers were nearly lost forever. They had been stored in a box and were scheduled to be thrown away with other scrap, as too often happens with papers of historical value. The papers were "rescued," however by Mrs. Lillian S. Hummer and Mrs. Jean Watson who had decided to sort through the boxes and be certain they contained nothing of value. On April 20, 1972, Mrs. Hummer donated the documents to the San Diego Historical Society.
The story of the finding and refinding of these papers is an interesting one, but of equal interest is the story of their owner, Allen B. Light. In January 1835, thirty-year-old Allen Light stepped ashore at Santa Barbara, in the Mexican territory of Alta California. Light had reportedly sailed around the horn on the Pilgrim, the same ship that brought Richard Henry Dana to California. Among Light's possessions was a piece of paper which said he was five-feet-eight-inches tall, a mariner, born in Philadelphia about 1805, "a coloured man," and "a Freeman and Citizen of the United States of America." That document, issued at New York, November 27, 1827, was one of the papers which showed up in the wall of the Casa de Machado in 1948. A facsimile of the document is printed herein. The paper Allen Light carried was popularly known as "a sailor's protection."
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