Category Archives: Politics

LePage’s Comments Remind Us that Civil Rights History Isn’t Just Blue and Grey

Maine Governor Paul LePage once again made national headlines for his defense of President Trump – and by extension, of confederate monuments – when he claimed that 7,600 Mainers fought for the Confederacy. That unsubstantiated claim appears to be off by a magnitude of several hundred, since the known number of Maine Copperheads is around […]

Confronting the Klan in 1920s Maine

The history of Maine’s brief, but intense, association with the Ku Klux Klan is becoming increasingly well-known. Along with a large portion of the country in the early 1920’s, Maine was home to a Klan chapter with a significant membership, which held significant sway over local politics. While the Klan had its beginnings with former […]

When Canada Was the Problem Neighbor (Life on the Border, Part 1)

A Canadian Mountie and Vermont State Trooper pose at the border near Highwater, QC, in 1941, for the opening of the Montreal-Portland (Maine) oil pipeline. (Libraries and Archives Canada)   From out these wilderness haunts, bands of men have for years made systematic raids on…settlements, and woe to the man, woman or  child who has interfered […]