Slavery in Maine Before 1800: The Prince Project

938 Post Road,Wells ME 04090

18 February, 2023

Description

Please join us as we welcome Vana Carmona who will discuss The Prince Project and researching enslaved people in Maine before 1800. This will be fascinating journey into a difficult part of our history and the challenges faced when trying to uncover the stories of enslaved persons in Maine and New England. Vana Carmona is the founder of The Prince Project, a database of over 2000 people of color who lived in Maine prior to 1800. She began this research eight years ago when she discovered that several of her ancestral New England families enslaved people of color and were also complicit in the slave trade itself. Because of her grandmother’s interest in genealogy and history, she had always known that she had descended from a number of early New England settlers. But, like most, no one ever mentioned the role they had played in enslaving kidnapped Africans. In addition to her research on Maine’s Black history, Vana is a docent/guide for several historic sites in the Portland area, including Maine Historical Society and Spirits Alive (Eastern Cemetery). Eastern Cemetery is the oldest public burial ground in Portland, Maine and has two sections of African American graves. She is a graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, and completed her Masters of Liberal Arts (focusing on Medieval History) at California State University/Sacramento.