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AUBURN – Androscoggin Historical Society will sponsor a program “From Slavery to Lewiston,” by Candace Kanes, about the lives of former slaves and how they came to live in Lewiston. The talk takes place at 7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 28, at the Society’s Davis-Wagg Museum on the third floor of the County building.
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. She has taught history and women’s studies at Bates College, Lewiston-Auburn College, the University of Southern Maine, the University of New England, and, for many years, at the Maine College of Art. She was the curator and historian of the Maine Memory Network and Maine Historical Society for 12 years, where she also curated a number of museum exhibits.
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.
Admission for this program is free, although donations are gratefully accepted. For more information about the Society, call 207-784-0586. Enter the County Building on the Court Street side. An elevator is available.
