Several
days after the start of classes, I decided to get a jump on long-term
assignments. So on a cold Tuesday afternoon, I ventured into the city of
Portland with the intent to learn about the monuments my parents tried to teach
me about as a young child (and my brother and I would stay quiet and tune them
out dreaming of Beal’s ice cream). After visiting the Maine Lobsterman, the
statue in Monument Square, and the Little Watering Girl, I stopped by Coffee By
Design on India Street to refuel. I left CBD and walked up Newbury St. on my
way to the East End. I have walked this route hundreds of times in the past few
years, passing what I now know as the Abyssinian Church each time. I would
remember thinking that the white, plain, abandoned building was almost an
eyesore, and furthermore why were there so few windows on a street that
receives an abundance of sunlight? Like so many others walk by.
 |
| [proof]: A shard of metal from the side yard. |
However,
today as I walked passed the big, white, eerie building I noticed a bronze
plaque and decided to read it: “The Abyssinian Church, 73 Newbury Street, was
the major hub for the Underground Railroad in Maine and became the social
center for Portland’s African American community.” And just like that, the lack
of windows made a little more sense. I had stumbled upon a golden opportunity
for another site visit (other Newbury Street walkers were disappointed to find
out that I hadn’t just won the lottery). I wandered around the left side of the
building into a dirt side yard scattered with small tools and shards of metal.
The first story windows were boarded up, and there was no hope of peeping
inside. After a final unanswered knock on the front door, I concluded that the
building was empty, and whatever construction was happening, was not happening
today. As I did one more loop around the church, I realized that the
Underground Railroad was not a mythical invention on fifth grade textbooks, nor
has Portland always been a city of white sailors and lumberjacks. My curiosity
about the building was peaked.
After
a quick Google search, I discovered the “Abyssinian Restoration Project” whose
mission statement extended beyond “the restoration, historic preservation and
maintenance of the historic building known as the Abyssinian Meeting House” to
include “the preservation and promotion of the cultural heritage of
African-Americans in Maine.” Reuben Ruby, Portland’s leading abolitionist,
provided the land, and the African American community pooled their funds to
build the church. Maine’s first Black church was completed in 1829. In 1836 a feud between Ruby and the Abyssinian Religious Society erupted over costs. In the court case Rueben Ruby vs. Abyssinian Religious Society of Portland, Ruby sues the society for the mortgage and internal improvements on the building that he's footed the bill for. Ruby is compensated for his debts. Despite financial setbacks, as the
anti-slavery movement heightened, the Abyssinian Church became a place of
refuge and political activity. In 1841, Reverend Amos N. Freeman joined the
Abyssinian Church as the first full-time minister. According the Freedom Trail,
Freeman was the “most well know African American in the state.”
In part the Meeting House experienced so much success as a URR site because of the demographics and geography of Portland. In 1850 there were 400 freed Blacks living in Portland, and 67 of them were listed as mariners. The freed Black population in Portland, who had a variety of ways to smuggle slaves via land and ocean, also had a safe nearby place to hide them-- the Abyssinian Meeting House. In addition to favorable geography, the famed African AMerican abolitionists such as Ruby and Freeman attracted a wider national abolitionist movement to Maine. The Abyssinian Church boasts an impressive repertoire of speakers from Frederick Douglass to Sojourner Truth. In 1866 when the Great Fire swept through Portland, the Abyssinian Meeting House was unharmed thanks to Reuben Ruby's son, William Wilberforce Ruby. By the turn of the twentieth century the Abyssinian Meeting House was no longer the hub of African American heritage and culture it once was. The Green Memorial AME Zion Church filled this void.
The Abyssinian Meeting House is critical to understanding Maine's diverse history. It serves as a reminder that there was not just North and South, Yankees and slaveowners, white abolitionists and Black slaves. It is also a crucial wake-up call to the way we teach our students about local history. How did I grow up three miles away from the Abyssinian Meeting House and only ever imagined a city full of White people?
Sources:
The Freedom Trail Packet
Visible Black History
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