Maine

D

17th-Century Economy

The first European settlers in Maine depended on fishing, farming, furs, and lumbering. As early as the 16th century, Europeans fished off the coast of Maine, salting or sun-drying the catch before taking it back to Europe. In the 17th century, the Pilgrims, colonists in Massachusetts, engaged in both fishing and fur trading in Maine to pay debts they owed in England. However, the fur trade declined by the mid-17th century when the beaver supply was exhausted. Settlements turned increasingly to farming, though the harsh climate, together with a lack of roads and markets, meant that farms remained at the subsistence level. By 1650 permanent settlements existed at Kittery, Wells, Scarboro, and York. Settlements extended along the coast but not far inland, except along rivers that afforded transportation to the coast. Early settlers felled trees, planted crops, and chopped firewood in a continuous cycle of work to produce food, shelter, and warmth in the Maine environment.

E

Colonial Wars

From the late 17th century to the mid-18th century, Maine experienced a series of wars that pitted the Abenaki and the French against English settlers. In the first of these wars, King Philip’s War (1675-1678), the English settlers fought native people throughout New England. The principal cause was English settlement on native lands, though local tribes also had specific grievances against the settlers in their regions. Fighting in Maine continued until 1678, two years after Philip’s death ended hostilities in southern New England.

Imperial wars between European powers also influenced hostilities in Maine, which was located between the claims of the French and the English in North America. These conflicts along the frontier included King William’s War (1689-1697), Queen Anne’s War (1702-1713), King George’s War (1744-1748), and the French and Indian War (1754-1763). Linked to the wars between the European powers, fighting flared between the Wabanaki and English settlers during these same years, as the native people tried in vain to keep the whites from encroaching on their land, resources and sovereignty.

The wars devastated Maine’s towns and people, both native and European. Atrocities were committed on both sides. In 1691 there were only four English settlements left, all of them in the southern corner of the state, but settlers persisted in their efforts, returning again and again to build forts, blockhouses, stockades, and garrison houses. The Treaty of Paris, which finally ended the French and Indian War in 1763, ousted the French from North America and marked the end of the native peoples’ resistance in Maine. The Penobscot and Passamaquoddy remained in eastern Maine, and were eventually moved to reservations, while other groups moved to join Abenaki villages in Canada or continued to live in small groups in western Maine. After the wars, European settlers increased rapidly from 23,000 in 1765 to 47,000 in 1775.

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F

American Revolution

After the French and Indian War, Great Britain increased taxes in the colonies to help defray the cost of the recent wars. In Maine, as elsewhere, the colonists’ response to the growing tensions with Britain was complex. Many people lived along the coast and were vulnerable to British attack. In addition, their livelihood often depended on trade with Britain, and they opposed an abrupt break with Britain. Their response ranged from cautious criticism to outright loyalty to the crown. But others, particularly those who lived farther inland and squatters who hoped war might allow them to own the land they occupied, willingly joined with Massachusetts patriots in 1765 in protesting the Stamp Act, a British measure to raise revenue that required tax stamps on various documents. Acts of resistance included burning tax collectors in effigy, signing petitions of protest against the stamp tax, and boycotting British goods. Later, in October 1775, the British navy burned Falmouth (now Portland) in response to that town’s acts of rebellion in refusing to supply the navy.

While Maine remained outside of the center of activity during the American Revolution, a few offensive actions did take place in the region. American military leader Benedict Arnold brought an expedition 193 km (120 mi) up the Kennebec River during his failed attempt to capture Québec from the British in 1775. In the same year, the people of Machias captured a British frigate, the Margaretta. However, Maine’s victories were few. When the British captured Castine in 1779, Massachusetts sent a fleet of 40 vessels and 1,000 men to retake the town. Although the American fleet outnumbered the British, the Americans suffered from indecisive leadership. While the Americans hesitated, more British ships arrived. The American fleet fled up the Penobscot River where the crew burned the ships to prevent their capture by the British. This event, known as the Penobscot Expedition, was one of the most disastrous naval episodes of the war. The coast of Maine remained under British control for the remainder of the war and became a haven for colonists loyal to Great Britain.

G

Statehood

The American Revolution made clear that Massachusetts was unable or unwilling to protect its province of Maine against the British, and a movement for separation from Massachusetts gained strength after the war. Revolutionary rhetoric about freedom from Great Britain turned into arguments for freedom from Massachusetts. Many Maine residents argued that Massachusetts favored absentee landlords over people living on the land. Agitation for statehood grew further during the War of 1812, a conflict between the United States and Britain over the maritime rights of neutral nations; the British captured Eastport, Castine, Belfast, and Bangor. Finally, Massachusetts consented to separation, and a convention at Portland drafted a constitution. In 1820 Maine became the 23rd state as part of the Missouri Compromise, which allowed Maine to enter the Union as a free state to balance Missouri’s admission as a slave state.

H

The Aroostook War

Since the end of the American Revolution, the border between Maine and Canada had been disputed. In the late 1830s, lumber interests in the Canadian province of New Brunswick and in Maine both sought control of the area that is now Aroostook County. Maine and New Brunswick both sent troops to the area, but the so-called Aroostook War ended without bloodshed in 1839. The boundary dispute was resolved by the Webster-Ashburton Treaty in 1842 (see Northeast Boundary Dispute).

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