Folklife Center Publishes Book on ‘Lost’ Downeast African-American Community
Contact: Pauleena MacDougall, (207) 581-1891
ORONO — “Tales plucked from the brink of oblivion” is how author Marcus LiBrizzi, associate professor of English at the University of Maine at Machias describes his new 118-page, illustrated book, recently published by through the UMaine Folklife Center.
“Lost Atusville: A Black Settlement from the American Revolution” provides a rare look at African-American life in early New England. Shedding light on the history of slavery, segregation, and integration in Maine, the book traces the rise and fall of a long-forgotten black community, the settlement of Atusville.
The book chronicles the facts, fiction and folklore of a small community founded by London Atus, a slave who earned his freedom in part because of his role in the American Revolutionary War and the famous attack — the first naval battle of the war — on the British warship The Margaretta in the Machias in 1775. While Atusville had six African-American families with 36 residents and its own school at one time, the last of its residents died in the mid-1960s. LiBrizzi also is the author of “Dark Woods, Chill Waters,” a collection of Downeast ghost stories.
The book is the forty-second volume in the Northeast Folklore series, edited by Pauleena MacDougall, director of the UMaine Folklife Center. It is available for $19.95 from the Maine Folklife Center, at local booksellers and on Amazon.com. The Folklife Center can be reached at folklore@maine.edu or by calling 581-1891.