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The Long Island History Project


It’s a long island with a long history. Want to hear it? Interviews with historians, scholars, authors and anyone with a story to tell and a passion for this unique region of New York.

Nov 4, 2018

Dr. John Strong, professor emeritus of Southampton College, has spent a career pursuing the history of Long Island's Native Americans. His latest achievement is bringing to life the earliest days of American whaling, using what amounts to 17th century spreadsheets. He uncovers an East End in a whaling frenzy.

Start-up companies (called whale designs) organized by the promiment familes of the area turned to an emerging generation of Native Americans to man their boats and hunt whales off the shore. It could be brutal, bloody, and incredibly profitable.

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