Contributed by Maine Historic Preservation Commission
Description
The stereo view photograph shows workers in the Merrill Slate Quarry in Brownville. Notice that a number of the workers are African-American.
After the Civil War, Gen. Oliver Otis Howard, head of the new Freedmen's Bureau, worked with Adams Merrill, owner of the quarry, to place about 34 families of former slaves in Brownville and Williamsburg to work in the quarry.
Merrill had requested families. The children attended local schools and the men worked in the quarry. A number of former slaves died of pneumonia and other diseases sometime after they arrived about 1868. Gradually others left the area as well, and by 1880, all the families of former slaves had left Brownville.
About This Item
- Title: Merrill Slate Quarry workers, Brownville, ca. 1868
- Creation Date: circa 1868
- Subject Date: circa 1868
- Location: Brownville, Piscataquis County, ME
- Media: Stereograph
- Local Code: MHPC 1507
- Object Type: Image
Cross Reference Searches
Standardized Subject Headings
- Slavery--United States
- Howard, O.O. (Oliver Otis), 1830-1909
- Maine--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
- United States--History--Civil War, 1861-1865
- Laborers--Maine--Brownville
- Quarrying--Maine--Brownville
- Slate quarrying--Maine--Brownville
- People associated with manual labor--Maine--Brownville
- Freedmen--Maine--Brownville
- Children of freedmen--Maine--Brownville
- African Americans--Maine--Brownville
For more information about this item, contact:
Maine Historic Preservation Commission55 Capitol Street, 65 State House Station, Augusta, ME 04333-0065
(207) 287-2132
Website
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