James Campbell, known as Camel, was born on January 16, 1856. A free-born African American who could read and write, he became a boat captain on the Morris Canal at age fifteen, one of only a small percentage of Black boat captains there, following other family members who had been boatmen before him. He married Hanna K. Anderson on October 9, 1878, and they had eight children, four boys and four girls. In 1889, he purchased his home in Washington, N.J., for $167.98. Located on North Lincoln Avenue in a once-thriving, well-established African American district near the waterway, it remained the family residence throughout his boatman career of approximately forty-plus years. The property included a large barn with a haymow where mules were kept and could be borrowed or left to rest for short periods. Other Black boatmen in the neighborhood included Joe Taylor and Jim Haines, and Mount Pisgah A.M.E. Church, erected in 1877, was an integral part of the neighborhood and the Campbell family's church home then and now. Some of his canal experiences were recorded in Tales the Boatmen Told, edited by James Lee in 1977, and he was also referred to in Charles Matlock Hummer's 1959 poem "Famous Tiller Sharks," which is sung in a film produced by the N.J. Public Television Corporation with the same title. James Campbell represents the African American presence and experience on the Morris Canal as a viable contributor to its day-to-day operations, and his home still stands as a legacy to his perseverance, work ethic, and undaunting spirit.