Mount Desert Island’s shipbuilders, sea captains, and sailors hold a special place in our collective memory. Hardworking and self-reliant, these men (and occasionally their wives) created a living from the sea. But historical records also show that trading Maine-made products like salt cod and barrel staves for rum, sugar, and molasses brought MDI seafarers into economic partnership with the slave-holding plantations of the West Indies. The cruelty and injustice of the slavery-based Caribbean colonies was in sharp contrast to the determined independence we assign to the celebrated New England mariners. Drawing on historical collections from Mount Desert Island, archival newspapers, and first-person accounts of enslavement and resistance in the West Indies, we will explore the MDI-Caribbean trade during the early nineteenth century.

Anna Durand lives in Bar Harbor with her husband Ralph. Her fascination with MDI history began in the late '80s when she worked as a clerk at the Hulls Cove General Store, listening to the "old-timers" tell their stories. She's raised four kids in Acadia and has run several small businesses.

This program is a collaboration between Jesup Library and the MDI Historical Society.