Skip to main navigation menu Skip to main content Skip to site footer

Articles

Volume 77/78 (2013)

The Use of Material Culture and Recovering Black Maine

Submitted
August 12, 2014
Published
2013-01-01

Abstract

Malaga Island, Maine, was home to a small mixed-racial fishing community from the late 1860s to 1912. The community was forcibly evicted by the state of Maine in 1912 after more than a decade of negative attention in the local and regional press, which drew the ire of state officials. After their eviction, several residents were institutionalized at the Maine School for the Feeble Minded at Pineland, and the state attempted to erase any evidence of their community from the island. Archaeological excavations in the early 2000s led to a museum exhibit in 2012. The excavation and exhibit have helped solidify a large descendant community.