“I grew up thinking we didn’t have slavery in Maine,” Merita McKenzie said, leading a tour of close to 80 people through downtown Portland. “I thought it stopped in Massachusetts.” 

As she learned more about African American history in Maine, McKenzie found that she was wrong. 

Maine had seen slavery, and more than she expected. 

“It’s very sad, but it’s very true that slaves were here,” McKenzie said. 

A walking tour through Portland’s downtown on Saturday afternoon highlighted the city’s Black history, including the arrival of slaves on ships docked in southern Maine harbors and, later, slaves boarding ships in Portland, searching for freedom. 

“We have a lot of history,” McKenzie said. 

McKenzie, a Portland native, has ancestors with a long history in the city. Her great-great-great grandmother came to Portsmouth from Dutch Guyana by herself at only 11 years old, later settling in Portland and growing the family McKenzie was born into. 

Although McKenzie never met many of her ancestors, they luckily “saved everything,” painting a picture of Portland’s Black history and how Black residents helped shape the city. 

Slaves would enter by ship near the Ocean Gateway on the city’s waterfront, Maine historian Bob Greene said.

On Gould Street near the harbor, where slaves would be dropped off upon arrival in Portland, the ghosts of their footprints still mark the stones. 

One block away from famed restaurant Eventide, the Abyssinian Meeting House stands, the third-oldest African American meetinghouse in the country. 

And up on Congress Street, the First Parish Church, waving an ever-present Black Lives Matter flag, serves as a modern-day gathering space for people of color in Portland. 

Portland is steeped in Black history, McKenzie said, but residents don’t often realize it. 

Lisa Jones, founder of Black Travel Maine, created the walking tour for that very reason. 

Most people think the Underground Railroad was only concentrated in the South, Jones said, but it actually came through Maine at one point. 

“This history is also in the north, and Maine has quite a bit of it,” Jones said. “It’s fascinating.”

For New England locals from Portland and beyond, Saturday’s tour was eye-opening. 

Makalah Moore, a Salem, Massachusetts, resident who traveled to Portland for the tour on Saturday, said she always felt that there wasn’t a lot of Black history in New England. 

The tour changed her mind. 

“You hear that Maine is very white, but I don’t think there’s anywhere that’s very white anymore,” Moore said. “This tour is a great way to celebrate Black History Month.” 

Sarah Mosley grew up in Portland but didn’t know much about Black history in the city before attending the tour. 

“It’s interesting to see Portland from this perspective rather than how I grew up here,” she said. “There are so many places that I’ve been to millions of times that I’ve never seen from this perspective.” 

As Black History Month continues through the end of February, Jones said she hopes Mainers remember the importance of unity and diversity in the state’s history. 

“Black history is American history, and it’s part of the fabric of history that Maine was built on,” she said.