Until very recently, racial slurs remained inscribed on Maine’s landscapes and racist mascots were cherished by schools and their communities. How did these symbols that disparage and dehumanize Black and Indigenous people come to be? Why have they persisted for so long? And what harmful vestiges remain still today?
Lincoln County Historical Association Event | Malaga Island with Kate McBrien on 2/2/23
Maine State Archivist Kate McBrien explores the history of racism and eugenics behind the fate of a community that lived on Malaga Island, off the coast of Phippsburg, Maine, in the late 1800s.
Maine Conservation Voters Event | Captain Frederick Drinkwater: A Maine Slave Ship Captain, with Dr. Kate McMahon on 2/3/23
Hosted by Maine Conservation Voters Friday, February 3, 2023 at 12:00 pm Register here Captain Frederick Drinkwater was born in Yarmouth, Maine, and rose from relative obscurity to become one of the most notorious slave ship captains of the 1850s and early 1860s. This talk will discuss Maine and the slave trade to Cuba in … Continue reading Maine Conservation Voters Event | Captain Frederick Drinkwater: A Maine Slave Ship Captain, with Dr. Kate McMahon on 2/3/23
Tonight! Atlantic Black Box presents: The Saga of James A. Butler told by his descendant, Charles Shaw, on 1/26/23
Charles Shaw shares the compelling story of James A. Butler, his maternal great, great grandfather who migrated as a young man from the Province of Nova Scotia to Boston in the mid-19th century in search of opportunity. A boat builder by trade and a likely descendant of the Black loyalist evacuation of New York in 1783, Butler arrived in the U.S. with youthful confidence and verve, only to encounter the dark side of the pursuit for the American dream.
Atlantic Black Box presents What Happened Here: The Saga of James A. Butler told by his descendant, Charles Shaw, on 1/26/23
Charles Shaw shares the compelling story of James A. Butler, his maternal great, great grandfather who migrated as a young man from the Province of Nova Scotia to Boston in the mid-19th century in search of opportunity. A boat builder by trade and a likely descendant of the Black loyalist evacuation of New York in 1783, Butler arrived in the U.S. with youthful confidence and verve, only to encounter the dark side of the pursuit for the American dream.
Event | Working While Black: Race, Labor, and Community in Black Bangor, 1880-1950 with Dr. Maureen Elgersman Lee on 2/22/23
Reaching its peak between the late 1800s and World War II, Bangor’s African American community experienced what is simultaneously a microcosm of America’s history and a very special local history within Maine.
Event | Caesar Freeman: An 18th-century Free Black Man in Bowdoin, Maine on 2/23/23
Jym St. Pierre will present his research on Caesar Freeman, one of the first settlers of the Town of Bowdoin, Maine and a free Black man.
Event | Indian Law & History Lecture on 11/18/22
Hosted by University of Maine School of Law Friday, November 18, 2022 12:00 PM to 1:30 PMOnline Zoom Webinar Register here The 2nd Annual Indian Law & History Lecture will explore the Doctrine of Discovery, a millennia old legal principle, which forms the foundation for Western property law and was first espoused by the Pope … Continue reading Event | Indian Law & History Lecture on 11/18/22
Event | Overlooked Stories and Histories: African Americans in Maine on 11/10/22
This Great Falls Forum panel will share stories to advance our knowledge of African Americans in Maine. Along with building a more honest and inclusive narrative of the community’s racial-ethnic heritage, panelists offer creative ways to preserve and celebrate told and untold stories of work, community-building, and the region's multifaceted heritage.
Course | Transitional Justice: Truth, Reconciliation, Reparations & Community Building
This course is geared toward people interested in learning about and exploring the future of creating grassroots truth telling, reparative initiatives across the state of Maine. Register now! Course launches 10/26
Mainers in the Sugar Trade
Cipperly Good describes an 1837 trading voyage that took a 24-year-old Maine captain from West Prospect, Maine to Barbados, Trinidad, and St. Thomas, with stops at Puerto Rico and New York City.
New Podcast: 99 Years, A Black exploration of the deliberate creation of the whitest state in the nation
99 Years podcast: Episode 1 This new podcast from Samuel James explores the Black history of Maine and the ties between national and local institutionalized racism. Samuel James is a journalist, storyteller and musician. Through his work as staff writer for Black Girl in Maine Media and his long-running column Racisms for Mainer Magazine Samuel … Continue reading New Podcast: 99 Years, A Black exploration of the deliberate creation of the whitest state in the nation
Event tonight | Yarmouth History Center (ME): Maine and the West Indies
Hosted by Yarmouth History Center October 11 at 7:00 pm Learn more here
Tonight! The Hidden History of Castine’s African & African American Residents at 5 pm
What's hiding in your town's collections? Hosted by Atlantic Black Box Tonight, Thursday, September 15th at 5:00 pm REGISTER HERE In 2019, Lisa Simpson Lutts began researching Africans and African Americans who lived and worked in Castine, a small but important seaport in downeast Maine in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Through her research, … Continue reading Tonight! The Hidden History of Castine’s African & African American Residents at 5 pm
ABB Event | The Hidden History of Castine’s African & African American Residents on 9/15
Hosted by Atlantic Black Box Thursday, September 15th at 5:00 pm REGISTER HERE Don't miss this engaging online event featuring researcher Lisa Lutts, who is uncovering the hidden and forgotten histories of the enslaved and free people of color who made an impact on Castine, Maine. In 2019, Lisa Simpson Lutts began researching Africans and African Americans who … Continue reading ABB Event | The Hidden History of Castine’s African & African American Residents on 9/15
ABB Event tomorrow | The Prince Project: Enslavement in Maine in the 17th and 18th Centuries
Hosted by Atlantic Black Box Thursday, Jul 28, 2022, 5:00 PM ET Register here Next up in our What Happened Here speaker series, Vana Carmona will share what she has learned about slavery in Maine The early days of enslavement in Maine are painfully hard to reconstruct. Records are elusive and often contradictory. Names change … Continue reading ABB Event tomorrow | The Prince Project: Enslavement in Maine in the 17th and 18th Centuries
ABB Event | The Prince Project: Enslavement in Maine in the 17th and 18th Centuries on 7/28/22
Hosted by Atlantic Black Box Thursday, Jul 28, 2022, 5:00 PM ET Register here Next up in our What Happened Here speaker series, Vana Carmona will share what she has learned about slavery in Maine The early days of enslavement in Maine are painfully hard to reconstruct. Records are elusive and often contradictory. Names change … Continue reading ABB Event | The Prince Project: Enslavement in Maine in the 17th and 18th Centuries on 7/28/22
ABB Event Thursday | In Mind and Memory: The Remarkable 18th-Century Will of Quash
Next up in our What Happened Here speaker series, James Tanzer discovers the will of a formerly enslaved Black man from Topsham, Maine Hosted by Atlantic Black Box Thursday, May 26, 2022 at 5:00 pm ET Register here
ABB Event | Making Visible the Invisible People in Maine’s History on 3/31/22
Next up in our What Happened Here Series, a talk by Maine historian Bob Greene Hosted by Atlantic Black Box Thursday, March 31, 2022 from 5:00 - 6:00 pm ET Register here You would think that a Black person would easily stand out in what is called one of the whitest states in the nation. … Continue reading ABB Event | Making Visible the Invisible People in Maine’s History on 3/31/22
A Presidential Pardon
By Bill Grabin Just History: Uncovering an Inclusive Story of the People of the Kennebunk Region On March 20, 1830, the following statement came forth from the White House: “Whereas it has been represented to me that the American Brig Volant … belonging to Adam Stone and Asa Fairfield, citizens of the United States residing … Continue reading A Presidential Pardon