When Henry David Thoreau made his storied expedition into the Maine woods, he didn’t travel alone. He was accompanied by a series of Indian guides, without whom Thoreau’s trips would never have been successful. One of those guides was Louis Annance, a well-known figure in the Moosehead Lake region. Annance was a member of the […]
A common refrain of those complaining about immigrants is that they are “takers” or “gaming the system.” Among Americans with their own immigrant histories, the complaint sometimes becomes “my ancestors didn’t need welfare. They worked for everything they had.” This kind of rhetoric is not only exclusionary and prejudiced, it’s also factually inaccurate. There are […]
2018 is in danger of becoming the year of the white supremacy in Maine. Multiple elected officials have been outed as racists in recent weeks, from the town manager of Jackman to a school board members in Oxford Hills and Minot. Meanwhile, legislation in the statehouse has been called out as discriminatory by immigrants and […]
“I hear you’re thinking of running for the House. I can tell you right now they you’re not going to win. Now, if you’re interested in politics, you should start by joining the County Democratic Women’s Club. They’re getting ready for a card party as a fund raiser. You can help them set the tables. […]
The remote western Maine town of Jackman, has been in the headlines recently for some of the worst reasons. On Friday it was revealed that the towns new town manager held white supremacist and racist views. What makes this revelation particularly troubling is that Jackman, because of its status as a border community, has long […]
New Year’s Day (le jour de l’an) is traditionally a special holiday for Franco-Americans, with a history stretching back through Canada and France. Some American observers thought it resembled Thanksgiving and Christmas rolled into one day that held religious, familial, and social significance. A reporter for the Lewiston (Maine) Evening Journal visited a Franco-American family in […]
Mon pays, c’est l’hiver (my country is the winter), sang Gilles Vigneault, in what quickly became a Quebecois classic after its 1965 release. The tune, with its haunting melody and wistful lyrics has been seen by many as a nationalist anthem, capturing both the cultural isolation of Quebec within Canada, as well as French […]
Remember, remember the Fifth of November Gunpowder, treason and plot I know no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot. This children’s rhyme is still commonly recited on and around November 5th in the United Kingdom, during the celebration officially known as Guy Fawkes Night. The night commemorates the anniversary of a foiled […]
In 1910, Maine was at the peak of an immigration wave that was providing crucial labor for its biggest industries. The US Census of that year found that 16% of Maine’s population, or one in eight residents, were immigrants. That’s a far greater share than today, when less than 3% of the state’s population was […]
In the early twentieth century, thousands of children worked in Maine’s manufacturing industries – in textile mills, shoe shops, granite quarries, and sardine canneries. These children faced dangerous working conditions, worked long hours, and missed out on the opportunity for an education. Although the state did pass a series of laws to regulate child labor, these […]
