This presentation, recorded at the library in February of 2022, is entitled, “Enslavement, The Underground Railroad and Abolition in Greater Portland.” In this talk, Seth Goldstein discusses African enslavement in Greater Portland, the Abolition movement, and the Underground Railroad routes through Maine to Canada.
Further down on this page, you will find multiple resources related to this topic, available from the library or found online, as well as experiences to be had in the area.
Seth Goldstein is a Maritime Historian, Board Member of the South Portland Historical Society, Instructor of History at the Maine College of Art and Design, and Educational Coordinator for the Atlantic Black Box Project.
This video was produced in partnership with South Portland Community Television.
Resources
- A History of Cape Elizabeth, Maine by William B. Jordan
- New England Bound: Slavery and Colonization in Early America by Wendy Warren
- Coastal Maine: A Maritime History by Roger F. Duncan
Film
Experiences
- Portland’s Freedom Trail
- Cotton Town: Maine’s Economic Ties to Slavery
(Maine Maritime Museum exhibit, through May 8, 2022)
Online
- “Portland and the State Both Complicit in Slavery”
Insight Column by Seth Goldstein, Maine Sunday Telegram, 2/13/22 - The Atlantic Black Box Project
- South Portland Historical Society
- Maine Historical Society
- Maine Maritime Museum
- “Cotton Town” Reveals Maine’s Links to the Slave Trade”
- Reuben Ruby: Hackman, Activist
- The Man Who Shouted “Fire!”
Special column in the Portland Press Herald, profiling William Wilberforce Ruby and his role in the discovery of Portland’s ‘Great Fire’ of 1866.