People, Locations, Episodes

Mon, 12.11.182011

Martin Becker, Sailor, and Printer born

On this date, we celebrate the birth of Martin F. Becker in 1820. He was a Black sailor, printer, administrator, and barber.

Becker was from Dutch Guiana (now Surinam), South America. His father was African, and his mother was East Indian, and both had come to America from South Africa.  After working as a sailor and attending European college, Becker came to the United States. He lived in Manchester, N.H., where he married a woman who worked at the Amoskeag Mills nearby.  He was one of the few Blacks to vote in that state. Becker and his wife then settled in Fitchburg, MA., where he ran a barbershop, worked as a printer, and was active as an abolitionist.

He also purchased a home from Benjamin Snow, a prominent local businessman involved with the Underground Railroad. His date of birth is uncertain, as he claimed to be younger than he was when he joined the Union armed forces during the American Civil War. Becker enlisted in the Union Navy, serving on Cumberland and Minnesota vessels.  In 1863, he joined the 55th Massachusetts Regiment as a private. He was wounded in the battle of Honey Hill, promoted to quartermaster in 1864, and mustered out at Charleston a year later.

Becker remained in South Carolina, where he was elected to its constitutional convention from Berkley County in 1868 and was appointed trial justice by governors Robert K. Scott and Daniel H. Chamberlain. He also served as election manager of James Island in 1870.  He fathered two sons, Henry, a pianist who became a music teacher, and Charles, the first Black teacher at the Fall River, Massachusetts, high school. Martin Becker died in 1880.

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