“Maine’s Visible Black History: The First Chronicle of Its People,” by H.H. Price and Gerald E. Talbot; Tilbury House Publishers of Gardiner; paperback, $35

Black men and women have been integral parts of Maine culture and society since the beginning of the colonial era. Mainers of African descent served in every American conflict from the King Philip’s War to the present. However, the many contributions of blacks in shaping Maine and the nation have, for a number of reasons, gone largely unacknowledged. “Maine’s Visible Black History” uncovers and reveals a rich strata of state history with a very real connection to regional and national events.

The project covers many facets of history, including slavery in Maine (which lasted until 1783), work, religion, family, education, military service, community, social change, arts and science, sports, politics, law, civil rights, the underground railroad, and the contributions of individual men and women. There are appendices, resources for students, and an index. The book’s illustrations document black life from Aroostook County to York County through the centuries.

Authors/editors H.H. Price and Gerald E. Talbot pulled the project together with the help of many contributing writers: Herb Adams, William David Barry, Beverly Dodge Bowens, Stephen Ellis, Leigh Donaldson, Bob Greene, Douglas Hall, Charles L. Lumpkins, Reginald Pitts, Marcia Robinson, Geneva McAuley Sherrer, Helene Ertha Vann, and others.

Price is a white New Englander with a background in civil rights and African American history, who has lived and worked in Maine since 1969. She is a writer/researcher, who led the research in the late 1990s that established that Maine was part of the underground railroad and communicated those findings through published works, an exhibition and a Web site.

An eighth-generation Mainer, Talbot is a black historian, a civil rights leader, the first black to be elected to the Maine State Legislature (1972-78), and the major donor of the African American Collection of Maine at the University of Southern Maine.

Books from Tilbury House are available in bookstores nationwide and online.