Chris Marshall
African-Americans have been in Maine since the very beginning of its settlement by Europeans, never in large numbers but always present. People in the central Maine town of Troy have local stories about an African-American settlement there in the late 1800’s, which is said to have been large and self-sufficient at one time but is now vanished. What was the reality of the place, and what was its fate? Between 2004 and 2007, Chris Marshall and his Unity College students interviewed Troy residents, sought out old records, and excavated the site of the original settlement to discover the stories, and the truth, about what happened to the African-Americans of rural Waldo County.
Chris Marshall is professor of anthropology at Unity College. He researches the ecology and historical archaeology of early Euro-and Afro-American settlers in the Central Maine back-country, with emphasis on land-human interaction and landscape archaeology.
Knowing their place: two stories (and the truth) about an African-American settlement in Troy, illustrated talk by Chris Marshall on Thursday, August 14, 7:00 pm at Penobscot Marine Museum’s Main Street Gallery, 40 East Main Street, Searsport, Maine. Tickets are $10 for non-members and $8 for members. To buy tickets call 207-548-2529 or 207-548-0334.
For museum information call Penobscot Marine Museum at 207-548-2529. Penobscot Marine Museum has seven new exhibits and over fifty programs and events this season. Its three acre, ten building campus is on Route One in Searsport, Maine and is open Monday through Saturday, 10:00 am to 5:00 pm, and on Sunday, noon to 5:00 pm. The museum is open through Sunday, October 19. Admission is free to members and to Searsport residents.