Tremendous Contributions to the Building of a Nation. Africans and African Americans were involved in virtually every aspect of colonial and antebellum maritime commerce from laborers to sailors to vessel owners. The maritime history and expertise of enslaved Africans across many disciplines was transferred to the urban and plantation settings where they labored. The Underground Railroad also made extensive use of ships to spirit enslaved persons to freedom in the North and in Canada. Thus far, there has been insufficient study or discovery of the material record of most of these maritime endeavors by Africans and African Americans. African American History in the Lowcountry is a survey about the tremendous contributions of African Americans to the building of America from an economic and social perspective of the maritime communities that comprise the Lowcountry.