Hosted by Atlantic Black Box and Indigo Arts Alliance
Thursday, November 18, 2021 at 5:00 PM EST
Register here
This month, Patricia Q. Wall will share results from nearly six years of meticulous research, refuting old myths about slavery’s rarity in New England and the false notion that it was of little impact on the development of Maine’s earliest settlements.
Over the course of several years of investigation into primary sources of all types—deeds, probate records, court files, church records, newspapers, manuscripts, and more—Patricia Wall skillfully uncovered the identity of more than 200 enslavers and over 500 people of African and mixed heritage who were enslaved in the “Parish of Kittery,” an area that included what are now the towns of Eliot and Berwick.
In her 2017 book Lives of Consequence: Blacks in Early Kittery & Berwick in the Massachusetts Province of Maine, Wall discusses these individuals with a remarkable degree of detail and places them in the context of their life and times. With her research, Wall has made a major contribution to the task of correcting the state’s historical record, offering us a more rounded understanding of life in the colonial and federal periods in early Maine.
About the speaker
In 2018, Patricia Wall was given a special recognition by the Maine Historical Society for her contribution to the state’s history. At present, hers is the first and only book specifically on slavery in Maine. Formerly a long-time resident of Kittery Point, Maine, Mrs. Wall now lives in Exeter, NH. She is also author of two historical novels — Child Out of Place (Fall Rose Books, 2004) and its sequel, Beyond Freedom (Fall Rose Books, 2010) – both are designed to introduce young people to New England’s early Black history. Over the years, Mrs. Wall has become a well-known public speaker and educator. To date she has visited with over 11,000 school children and presented teachers’ seminars throughout New England on this essential chapter of American history.
Atlantic Black Boxis a grassroots historical recovery project that empowers communities throughout New England to research, reveal, and begin reckoning with the region’s complicity in the slave trade and the global economy of enslavement.
Indigo Arts Alliance connects Black and Brown artists from around the world with Maine’s artists of African descent through a multidisciplinary artist-in-residency program that embodies a Black-led approach to creativity, community-building, and mentoring.
