The Portland Freedom Trail is a self-guided walking tour of

Portland, Maine Portland is the List of municipalities in Maine, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine and the county seat, seat of Cumberland County, Maine, Cumberland County. Portland's population was 68,408 at the 2020 census. The Portland metropolit ...

. Established in 2007, its course passes through the city's oldest and most historic areas, including those related to its

African American African Americans, also known as Black Americans and formerly also called Afro-Americans, are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, American racial and ethnic group that consists of Americans who have total or partial ancestry from an ...

population, and features thirteen points of interest. Most of the stops are in the Old Port and

Arts District An arts district or cultural district is a demarcated urban area, usually on the periphery of a city centre, intended to create a 'critical mass' of places of cultural consumption - such as art galleries, theatres, art cinemas, music venues, and p ...

. The Abyssinian Meeting House, the third-oldest African American meetinghouse in the country, is a stop on the tour, while several others are tied to the city's former

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was an organized network of secret routes and safe houses used by freedom seekers to escape to the abolitionist Northern United States and Eastern Canada. Enslaved Africans and African Americans escaped from slavery ...

Markers

The granite markers with bronze plates denoting points on the tour were designed and created by

Daniel Minter Daniel Minter (born 1961 in Ellaville, Georgia) is an African-American artist and educator working in painting, sculpture, illustration, assemblage, and public art. Education Minter received his A.A. from Art Institute of Atlanta. In 2019, he ...

, a contemporary artist in the city who was instrumental in creating the trail. Some of the stops on the tour mark extant locations, while others mark former locations.

Sites

The thirteen stops on the tour are:''Portland Freedom Trail''
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Maine Historical Society The Maine Historical Society (MHS) is the official historical society of the U.S. state of Maine. It is located at 489 Congress Street in downtown Portland. The Society currently operates the Wadsworth-Longfellow House, a National Historic Land ...

# Franklin Street wharf, on Commercial Street, where enslaved people once arrived as stowaways on their journey to freedom # Barber Shop of Jacob C. Dickson, 243

Fore Street High Street is a common street name for the primary business street of a city, town, or village, especially in the United Kingdom and Commonwealth. It implies that it is the focal point for business, especially shopping. It is also a metonym fo ...

Hack Hack may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Games * Hack (Unix video game), ''Hack'' (Unix video game), a 1984 roguelike video game * .hack (video game series), ''.hack'' (video game series), a series of video games by the multimedia fran ...

Stand of Charles H. L. Pierre, 29 Middle Street # Abyssinian Meeting House, 73 Newbury Street. The Abyssinian Meeting House was the first black congregation in Maine and a significant part of Maine's Underground Railroad network. # Home of Charles Frederick, Harriet Stephenson Eastman and Alexander Stephenson, corner of Mountfort and Newbury Streets #

Eastern Cemetery Eastern Cemetery is a historic cemetery at the intersection of Washington Avenue and Congress Street in the Munjoy Hill neighborhood of Portland, Maine. Established in 1668, it is the city's oldest historic site. It has more than 4,000 marked g ...

# Home of Elias and Elizabeth Widgery Thomas, corner of

India Street India Street is a downtown street and neighborhood in Portland, Maine, United States. Situated near the western foot of Munjoy Hill, it runs for around , from Congress Street in the northwest to Commercial Street and Thames Street in the s ...

and Congress Street # Home of General Samuel C. Fessenden, 31 India Street # Friends (Quaker) Meeting House,

Lincoln Park Lincoln Park is a park along Lake Michigan on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. Named after US president Abraham Lincoln, it is the city's largest public park and stretches for from Grand Avenue (500 N), on the south, to near Ardmore Avenu ...

, corner of Federal and Pearl Streets # Hack stand of Reuben Ruby, corner of Federal and Temple Streets. Ruby was Portland's foremost African American Anti-Slavery activist and underground railroad conductor # First Parish Church, 425 Congress Street. The church was where an audience of 2,000 heard abolitionist

William Lloyd Garrison William Lloyd Garrison (December , 1805 – May 24, 1879) was an Abolitionism in the United States, American abolitionist, journalist, and reformism (historical), social reformer. He is best known for his widely read anti-slavery newspaper ''The ...

speak in 1832. In 1842, a pro-slavery riot occurred at the church after abolitionist

Stephen Symonds Foster Stephen Symonds Foster (November 17, 1809 – September 13, 1881) was a radical American abolitionist known for his dramatic and aggressive style of public speaking, and for his stance against those in the church who failed to fight slavery. His ma ...

spoke about New England's role in the institution of slavery. # Secondhand Clothing Store of Lloyd Scott, 44 Exchange Street #

Mariner's Church Mariners' Church of Detroit is a church with worship services adhering to Anglicanism, Anglican liturgy, liturgical traditions located at 170 East Jefferson Avenue in Downtown Detroit. It was founded in 1842 as a special mission to the maritime ...

, corner of Fore Street and Moulton Street, where there was an anti-slavery bookstore and a printshop run by Daniel Colesworthy. The print shop published ''Light and Truth From Ancient and Sacred History,'' by Robert Benjamin Lewis. The book was the first Afro-centric history printed in the U.S.

Gallery

File:PFT marker Fore Street, Portland, Maine.jpg, Marker number 2, on Fore Street File:PFT Moulton Street.jpg, Marker number 13, at the corner of Fore Street and Moulton Street

References

{{Reflist

External links

Portland Freedom Trail self guided walking tour
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"Portland Freedom Trail"
– VisitMaine Historic trails and roads in Maine Museology Urban heritage trails Tourist attractions in Portland, Maine 2007 establishments in Maine African-American history of Maine History of Portland, Maine

Markers

Sites

Gallery

See also

References

External links