Abolitionist Frederick Douglass Visits Portland, Again

Frederick Douglass returns to Portland

If there was ever a place that Frederick Douglass should visit (if his reincarnated self appeared in the year 2012), it would be Portland, Maine.  That's just what happened last night, when living history actor Guy Peartree of Boston performed as Frederick Douglass in a one-man play at the Fifth Maine Regiment Museum on Peaks Island. Fortunately for Mr. Peartree, his re-enactment did not include a historically-accurate reception by the local audience.

Portraying Frederick Douglass, Peartree took his Peaks Island audience back to the early 1800s when "Fred" was a small boy just realizing his enslavement on a plantation. The performance fast forwarded to Douglass' years as a teenager when he escaped the plantation, learned to read, and started his journey toward becoming when of America's greatest 19th century orators, writers, journalists, and abolitionists. This journey would include at least one visit to Portland, Maine.

Like many other well-known abolitionists, Douglass spoke in Portland, Maine but not always to a receptive audience. Maine's economy was deeply intertwined with the slave-based economy of the South and not everyone championed abolition of slaves. 

Some insight into what Douglass experienced on that visit comes from a 1904 interview of underground railroad conductor Miss Charlotte Thomas at her home in Portland. She talked about her personal experience with the abolitionist movement in Portland that ended with her becoming embroiled in one of Portland's riots.

Charlotte Thomas, courtesy Fifth Maine

Miss Charlotte Thomas: “There were not more than half a dozen houses in town that dared to harbor a slave in those days. Newell A. Foster, who owned the Press, and his brother Stephen came near being tarred and feathered for helping us in other slave cases. As the slaves were coming and going all the time we were all kept busy in the work, and so we didn’t notice the social ostracism very much...[In 1847] William Lloyd Garrison with a freed slave by the name of Charles Lennox Remond, and Fred Douglass came here to lecture in the Old Quaker Church…About half past seven o’clock we all started for the church at the corner of Pearl and Federal streets. There we found a mixed audience, but very few of whom were sympathizers…[Garrison] was a wonderfully convincing speaker…but in simple language he stated the awful curse of slavery, and dwelt on its injustice. He referred to the Declaration of Independence as a living lie…

Guy Peartree Performs at Fifth Maine

Then the escaped slave, Remond, came on the stage to speak. No sooner had he made his appearance than the trouble commenced. A mob had gathered on the outside and began to throw stones at the building. In less than five minutes every window in the church was smashed out and several persons in the audience had been hit by the flying missiles…Then the rotten eggs began to fly and scores of them were hurled at the speakers. They were hit in several places but continued to stand their ground. As I turned around to look at the mob one of the eggs struck me squarely in the forehead and spattered its contents all over my face. It didn’t hurt me in the least, but it made a much stronger abolitionist of me.”


Thanks to the hard-won gains of the Civil War, and Civil Rights struggles that followed it, the 2012 visit of Frederick Douglass/performer Guy Peartree - was greeted only with smiles and well-deserved applause.