The comparatively large numbers of blacks involved in Maine's seafaring industry, particularly in Portland during the 19th century, highlight the obvious: Blacks made considerable contributions to Maine's success in the shipping business and they went on to be instrumental in subsequent transportation enterprises, such as work on the railroads and at airports. Transportation is an African-American domain, and it began with their sailing skills.

The Federal Census in Portland in 1850 listed 67 black (or "colored" as they were called then) mariners, as compiled by historian Kimberly A. MacIsaac. Work in the seafaring community included seamen, stevedores, shipwrights, caulkers, stewards, and cooks. Click here for the list of Portland black mariners in the 1850 census.

Seventy-five names of blacks from Maine who served as sailors in the Union Navy are listed on a web site, which is a cooperative project between Howard University and the National Park Service. (An additional name of Clement Dees of Eastport has been provided to us by Wayne Wilcox). Click here for the African American Sailors in the Union Navy from Maine web site.

Twenty-five percent of mariners before the Civil War were black, according to W. Jeffrey Bolster's Black Jacks : African-American Seamen in the Age of Sail, 1997. He references a few Maine "black jacks" in his book: an older crew in 1834 on a vessel out of Eastport that was hauling coal to Nova Scotia; and a Captain Potter who bought a schooner, Jerome, in Portland in 1855 and hauled coal from Philadelphia to New England. Bolster describes Portland's black community in the 19th century, made up primarily of mariners and related work, as stable.

In Portland they lived near the waterfront on Munjoy Hill and were the strength of their community. Herbert Adams, historian, writes in his 1998 Portland Magazine article that the weakening of the Abyssinian Meetinghouse congregation and ultimately its folding in 1917 was because of the sinking of the steamer SS Portland in 1898. Everybody died, and there were 19 blacks aboard. Many were members and supporters of the Abyssinian -- a noticeable absence for that size congregation.

Margaret Ann Mathews (1863-1928), pictured here, lost two husbands to the sea within five years.   Her first husband, William Ball, drowned in Casco Bay in 1892; and her second husband, Francis Eben Heuston, went down with the SS Portland in 1898.  Margaret Mathews was born in Brunswick and spent her adult life in Portland on Munjoy Hill,  where she is remembered for teaching the children in her extended family how to set a table and have good manners.   Her  story comes from Bob Greene's Maine Roots II: The Manuel / Mathews / Ruby Family,1999.  Greene has led the way in genealogical research on Maine's black families.   His book and other black genealogical information can be found on the resources page.

Black sailors along the Atlantic Rim in the 18th and 19th centuries created their own strong community. They communicated quickly by word of mouth, replenished their sense of self-worth, and helped one another. Black Mainers and those who came in and out of Maine's harbors and rivers were very much a part of this cosmopolitan water world.

Black mariners were resourceful in helping runaways from slavery by stowing them away or trading information about safe destinations. One documented story is told by Maine's State Historian in 1922, Henry Sweetser Burrage, about a runaway in 1837 from Georgia named Atticus. He was stowed away on the schooner Susan that landed in Thomaston, hidden in a barn, and then betrayed and turned over to the man who had "owned" him. Later, Georgia tried to have the ship's master and mate extradited to Georgia for trial on charges of stealing "property." Maine refused, through the terms of three governors, on the principle that Maine did not consider people property. Ben Ames Williams uses this true story in his historical fiction, The Strange Woman, 1941, only it is set in Bangor.

There were many occupations that supported the seafaring industry: hackmen, boardinghouse owners, restauranteurs, and trades like sailmaking. Robert Benjamin Lewis, who was born in Gardiner and worked in a Bath shipyard, invented a machine that prepared hemp for caulking ships. It was patented in 1836, and Reginald H. Pitts writes in his upcoming Journal of African Studies' article about Lewis that it was one of the few patents granted blacks before the Civil War. Lewis wrote the first Afro-centric book in America, Light and Truth, 1836, an extensive survey of African history and perspective to enlighten North American readers. He was very much a part of the black mariners' world, which was articulate and active in the struggle for freedom.

A sea-related industry is making salt. Thomas Frazer, who settled what is now Winter Harbor in the late 1700s, made salt and sold it to passing ships from a piece of shoreland that now bears his name: Frazer Point and Frazer Cove.

Blacks' involvement in the maritime world diminished in the 20th century as did the industry. Their jobs as stevedores in Portland were taken over by the Irish in the late 19th century. However, blacks continued to work in the shipyards,  including a team of welders for the Liberty Ships at South Portland during WW II who worked on building the SS Robert L. Vann. Vann was publisher of the Pittsburgh Courier and a powerful black American voice of the early 20th century. The May-June, 2002 Newsletter of the Portland Harbor Museum pictures Captain John Godfrey of the SS Robert L. Vann.

In preparation for the 2000 OpSail in Portland Harbor, a West African man, Eluem Blyden, led the building of a traditional African canoe to highlight Africa's maritime heritage. The project took place near the Green Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church on Munjoy Hill, Portland, today's active black parish that is located in the same neighborhood as its 19th century's black maritime community.

The photograph above of the Mary H. Diebold , a five-masted schooner and last to be built in Maine, was taken in Calais. The schooner was built in Newcastle and sailed from 1920 to 1931. Maritime historians believe the photo was taken at the end of its sailing, just before it was dissembled in Eastport. The crew has not been identified, and they may well not be Mainers; but the photograph represents the important involvement of blacks in Maine's shipping history.

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