Amos’s Ear: Black Mainers, the American Revolution, and the Fight for Freedom

A Free Online Lecture

Presented in partnership with the Old Bristol Historical Society

Free and open to the public – preregistration is required. 

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African Americans used the American Revolution as a means to pursue freedom and equality. This lecture explores the history of freedom-making in Revolutionary-era Maine, with a particular focus on the community of Peterborough in Warren.

Founded by Revolutionary War veteran Amos Peters and his formerly enslaved wife Sarah, Peterborough became a beacon of freedom and hope for Black Mainers and their families throughout the Midcoast. This talk examines the complex and often contradictory realities of freedom and unfreedom experienced by Black Mainers in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

Dr. Kate McMahon is the Executive Director of the Castine Historical Society. She serves on the Operational Committee of SlaveVoyages.org and is a co-founder and board member of Atlantic Black Box. Dr. McMahon earned her B.A. in Art History and M.A. in American and New England Studies from the University of Southern Maine and completed her Ph.D. in History at Howard University in 2017.

Her dissertation, The Transnational Dimensions of Africans and African Americans in Northern New England, 1776–1865, examined Black life and mobility across borders. Her current research focuses on New England’s connections to and complicity in the illegal slave trade and colonialism from 1809 to 1900. Dr. McMahon is dedicated to interpreting the lasting legacies of slavery and the slave trade for broad public audiences through scholarship and public engagement.

Thank you to J. Edward Knight Insurance for sponsoring our Online Winter Lecture Series.