Maine History Online

Text by Candace Kanes

Images from Maine Historical Society

The evidence is scattered here and there. Family remembrances, birth and death records; deeds and bills of sale; photographs, and various other records. African-Americans have been in Maine, albeit in relatively small numbers for quite a long time.

Some of the earliest evidence of African-Americans in the state are receipts for purchase or sale of enslaved people. Slavery was present, although infrequent in colonial Maine. In 1780, during the American Revolution, slavery was outlawed by Massachusetts and hence in the District of Maine.

Free black people also settled in Maine and came to Maine during colonial days. Many arrived as seamen, working on ships that came into Portland and other ports, and as stevedores along the waterfront.

As with other immigrant populations, black people came to Maine from a variety of places and for a variety of reasons.

They worked on the waterfront, had their own small businesses, worked for railroads, were teamsters or drivers, worked in service occupations, public accommodations, or restaurants. Some blacks were laborers, woodsmen, or firefighters.

Historian Randall Stakeman estimates that in 1850, more than half of the black working men in the state were in maritime related trades – fishing, shipwrights, stewards, stevedores. By the end of the 19th century, many more occupations were represented.

In 1900, Portland's black population was nearly 291, down from 334 in 1870. About 200 black people lived in Bangor in 1900, up from 84 in 1870. These two communities had the largest black populations in the state in 1900, but black people lived in and have been integral to many Maine cities and towns, even though their numbers were few.

The Portland black community was large enough to support a separate church, the Abyssinian Congregational Church that began in 1827.

Maine boasted the nation's first African-American Roman Catholic Bishop, James A. Healy (1830-1900). A native of Georgia and graduate of Holy Cross College, Healy attended seminary in Canada and France. His father was from Ireland, his mother of mixed race.

Healy, like many of the Catholics he led, faced discrimination in Maine. He promoted Catholicism and Catholic education in the state, increasing both the number of parishes and the number of parish schools.

Healy spent much of his career in Boston. He came to Maine in 1875 to serve as Bishop of the Diocese of Portland, a post he held until 1900.

African-Americans and African immigrants continued to come to Maine in the 20th and 21st centuries, some from war-torn countries, others drawn by colleges, the landscape, employment opportunities, and family.