Remembering Malaga in 2020: Race and Eugenics in Maine’s History and Future

Malaga Island, in Phippsburg, Maine, was once home to a mixed-race fishing community from the mid-1800s until 1912, when Governor Frederick Plaisted evicted island residents following complaints that the poor conditions of Malaga Islanders’ homes would affect summer tourism. The state conducted an assessment of each resident’s home and their physical, mental, and financial conditions, ultimately forcing 47 residents from their homes and committing eight to the new Maine School for the Feeble-Minded in New Gloucester (now Pineland). The state then exhumed and relocated their buried dead to Pineland grounds.

 

 

Join Dr. Hannah Marcus, Assistant Professor of the  History of Science at Harvard University, for a discussion about Malaga Island and Maine’s complicated history with race, eugenics, and xenophobia. How can we reckon our legacy with the future we want to create here in Maine?  Her presentation will be followed by a conversation about how science directs our social narrative and how history remembers it. Questions for discussion are encouraged.