Date of Award

2026

Document Type

Honors Thesis (Open Access)

Department

Colby College. American Studies Program

Advisor(s)

Ben Lisle

Second Advisor

Laura Saltz

Abstract

Portland, Maine, is located on the rocky shores of the Atlantic Ocean and has served as home to a diverse population that has benefited from the economic and social aspects of the shipping and trading industry. This port city in one of the northernmost regions of the United States was one of the last stops for ships carrying goods before reaching the city centers of the Americas and Europe. As a result, during the late 18th and early to mid-19th centuries, skilled and unskilled Black laborers from somewhat fringe regions within the Atlantic migrated to Portland in search of not just freedom but agency.

Portland’s past as home to an established black community is rarely discussed; in fact, all who arrived in Portland in the early 18th century were greeted by Black mariners and longshoremen who worked and lived along the coast. While Blacks have resided in Maine for as long as Europeans, Black sailors often accompanied early explorers in the New World.  Hence, the Black population was relatively small, often brought by Europeans and early colonists as enslaved men and women until 1783, when Black people were emancipated under the Massachusetts state constitution (of which Maine was a part).

As more Black mariners and laborers moved to Portland, Maine, they occupied labor roles that can contemporarily be characterized as part of a lower labor order, often performing menial tasks that were important to Portland’s economy. In Portland, Blacks often worked alongside lesser white immigrants, while simultaneously being met with white hostility within residential areas; thus, spawning the creation of separate Black communities within Portland. As a result, Wards One and Two, specifically the base of Monjoy Hill and the institutions within, were where Blacks established a community that played an enormous role in the Underground Railroad, further securing Black agency and liberty within Maine.

As writers and historians of Northern New England Black history simply nod to the origin of Blacks living in Portland, Maine; the subject of Black migration to these regions is often kept separate from or lightly mentioned in labor history. In order to fully grasp the history of free Blacks and the communities they created in northern territories, it's important to first understand the systems which acted as a catalyst for their migration to and through this region. By applying works by labor historians such as Jeffrey Bolster coupled with the theory of racial capitalism by Cedric Robinson, the Black experience as it pertains to the shipping and trading industry and migration to northern coastal port cities becomes more worthy of further discussion.

Keywords

Migration, Labor History, Maritime History, Shipping and Trading Industry, New England Studies, African American Diaspora, Atlantic Regional Trade

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