Did You Know?

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

– 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 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?