Did You Know?

– That the first enslaved person in Arundel (today’s Kennebunkport) was paid for by the Town?  In 1734, as part of a compensation negotiation with Reverend Thomas Prentice, they agreed to provide him with a raise of £10 per year, an additional £20 per year for fuel, and £30 for him to purchase a “servant.”

– That “a Negro boy Jeffy” was purchased by Deacon Thomas Wells in 1718, and that Jeff continued as an enslaved person for three or four generations of the Wells family?

– That in the 1720’s, a community of about 160 Indigenous people lived beside the Mousam River?

– That People of Color were enslaved by many of the area’s most prominent citizens? They included Col. John Bourne, Capt. John Fairfield, Capt. Tobias Lord and Lt. Tobias Lord, Rev. Samuel Emery, Waldo Emerson, John Goodale, Joseph Hill, Rev. John Hovey, Samuel Jefferds, Benjamin Littlefield, Capt. James Littlefield, Dr. Joseph Sayer(Sawyer), Col. John Wheelwright, Thomas Wiswall, Judge Nathaniel Wells, and Judge Samuel Wheelwright.

– That a woman named Phillis, who was enslaved by Joseph Hobbs, had a 5 year old daughter who was taken from her by a “distinguished Revolutionary officer” and sold in Saco?