by Andy O’Brien On August 16, 1834, Maine abolitionists put out the call to anti-slavery activists across the state to come to Augusta on the third Wednesday of October to “unite in fervent prayer to Almighty God to direct and… Read More »Radical Mainers: The Founders of Maine’s Early Anti-Slavery Organizations
by Andy O’Brien General Samuel Fessenden became radicalized after meeting the great abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison in the fall of 1832, in Portland. Garrison’s compelling words stoked an intense passion in the militia commander’s heart. He was more determined than… Read More »Radical Mainers: Abolitionist & Colonizationist Square Off for the the Great Portland Colonization Debate of 1833Radical Mainers:
by Andy O’Brien Late one evening in September, 1832, the rabble-rousing abolitionist William Lloyd Garrison disembarked from a ship in Portland Harbor. Garrison was fired up and ready to take on his bitter enemies, the American Colonization Society (ACS), which… Read More »Radical Mainers: William Lloyd Garrison’s Spirited Speaking Tour of Maine
by Andy O’Brien In Sept. 19, 1826, an extraordinary letter signed by six African American men appeared in Portland’s Eastern Argus newspaper. It was very unusual for local papers to print the opinions of Black Mainers, but what made this… Read More »Radical Mainers: The letter that Launched the Racial Justice Movement in MaineRadical Mainers:
by Andy O’Brien Think I heard my captain say Pay me my money down T’morrow is my sailin’ day Pay me my money down Wish’t I was Mr. Coffin’s son Pay me my money down Stay in the house an’… Read More »When Portland’s Waterfront Resounded with the Songs of Black Maritime Workers
by Andy O’Brien In 1819, just months after John Brown Russwurm entered Hebron Academy, his studies were cut short when a fire burned down the school’s main building. Historian Carl Patrick Burrowes has raised the question of whether it was… Read More »The Making of a Maine Abolitionist, Pan-Africanist & Pioneering Black Journalist, Part II
by Andy O’Brien Sometime during the winter of 1815, a mixed-race boy named John Brown arrived at a stately farmhouse in the Back Cove neighborhood of Portland. It was the first time the 15-year-old had had a chance to see… Read More »The Making of a Maine Abolitionist, Pan-Africanist & Pioneering Black Journalist
