This event is hosted on Zoom by The Atlantic Black Box Project and Pejepscot History Center

In the colonial era, Maine had a significant population of enslaved people and engaged heavily in the Atlantic slave trade. By Alfred Skolfield’s time (1815-1895), slavery had legally ended in Maine. However, Northern prosperity had become inseparable from Southern slavery. The Skolfields leveraged their connections with the South and the slave economy in order to build a prosperous multi-generational shipbuilding and shipping business. This wealth enabled the creation of the Skolfield-Whittier House that we know today.

In his sixteen years as a ship captain, Alfred Skolfield primarily carried Southern cotton produced by enslaved labor to European industrial ports. Concurrently, the Skolfields had fraught relationships with the free Black sailors whom they employed. Genevieve Vogel, Whitman College student and PHC 2022 summer intern, will lead this lecture and conversation with the mission of adding complexity to the Skolfield narrative and building context around the slave economy. Her informative guide, intended to further educate members, volunteers, docents, researchers, and visitors, will be available in digital PDF format.

Tickets: $5 PHC Members; $8 General Admission Register here

Zoom link will be sent in your Eventbrite confirmation email.