Online history talk of freedom-making with particular focus to Peterborough in Warren
The town of Warren contributed $75 from the alewife fishery profits to help the Peterborough community build their own schoolhouse in 1845. (Photo courtesy Warren Historical Society)
On February 5, Dr. Kate McMahon will give a Zoom presentation on how the American Revolution affected African Americans fight for freedom and equality. This talk is part of Old Bristol Historical Society’s Speaker Series, in collaboration with the Lincoln County Historical Association. (Photo courtesy Kate McMahon)
The town of Warren contributed $75 from the alewife fishery profits to help the Peterborough community build their own schoolhouse in 1845. (Photo courtesy Warren Historical Society)
On February 5, Dr. Kate McMahon will give a Zoom presentation on how the American Revolution affected African Americans fight for freedom and equality. This talk is part of Old Bristol Historical Society’s Speaker Series, in collaboration with the Lincoln County Historical Association. (Photo courtesy Kate McMahon)"No doubt, you’ve driven by the reproduction of Revolutionary War veteran Henry Knox’s Montpelier mansion in Thomaston countless times," said Old Bristol Historical Society and Lincoln County Historical Association, in a news release. "But did you know that another Revolutionary War veteran and his family helped build the original Montpelier home on the St. George River?
The man was Amos Peters, of African and Wampanoag ancestry who had previously been enslaved, according to OBHS. Together with his wife Sarah, captured in Guinea and also formerly enslaved, Peters would found Peterborough in Warren, which was once the largest African American community in Maine.
On February 5, “Amos’s Ear — Black Mainers, the American Revolution and the Fight for Freedom” will be the first talk of the year in Old Bristol Historical Society’s (OBHS) Speaker Series, in collaboration with the Lincoln County Historical Association (LCHA). Dr. Kate McMahon, Executive Director of the Castine Historical Society, will explore this history of freedom-making with a particular focus on Peterborough. Her talk will unpack the complicated tension between freedom and unfreedom throughout the late 18th and early 19th centuries for Black Mainers.
A Maine native, McMahon earned her B.A. in Art History and M.A. in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine. She completed her Ph.D. in history at Howard University. Her dissertation was entitled “The Transnational Dimensions of Africans and African Americans in Northern New England, 1776-1865.” She is also co-founder and board member of Atlantic Black Box which researches and reckons with New England’s role in colonization and enslavement.
This Zoom presentation will be at 6 p.m. on February 5. There is no charge but you must pre-register at bit.ly/49Tb4ZP
OBHS thanks a generous anonymous donor and the LCHA recognizes J. Edward Knight Insurance for sponsoring this program.
The mission of OBHS is to collect, preserve and share the region’s rich history and prehistory for present and future generations.
