AUBURN — The Androscoggin Historical Society will sponsor From Slavery to Lewiston by Candace Kanes, about the lives of former slaves and how they came to live in Lewiston.
The talk will be held at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, at the society’s Davis-Wagg Museum on the third floor of the County Building at Court and Turner streets.
On April 6, 1866, about a dozen former slaves arrived in Lewiston through the auspices of the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, which worked to find permanent employment for those freed from bondage by the Civil War. They were the first black residents of Lewiston.
For several years, Candace Kanes, an independent historian and museum consultant, has been researching former slaves who came to Maine following the 1863 Emancipation Proclamation.
A former newspaper reporter and editor in Ohio and Maine, Kanes holds a doctorate in American history from the University of New Hampshire.
Her talk will also include information about the Freedmen’s Bureau, its commissioner, Brig. Gen. Oliver Otis Howard of Leeds, and some of the other former slaves who were resettled in Maine.
Enter the County Building on the Court Street side. An elevator is available.
Admission to the program is free, although donations are gratefully accepted.
FMI: 207-784-0586.
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