During the late 19th century, many communities memorialized Black freedom with Emancipation Day celebrations, if not always on Emancipation Day. In Washington, D.C., African Americans commemorated the end of slavery in the Capitol district on April 16. Black Texans honored Juneteenth, June 19, which is now a federal holiday.
“Following the Civil War, Emancipation Day events in Portland were often held in Black churches, (such as) the Abyssinian on Newbury Street,” Eben Miller writes. New entrance doors and new windows have been installed at the Abyssinian Meeting House as part of its restoration. Gregory Rec/Staff Photographer
Although the Emancipation Proclamation did not end slavery, Emancipation Day, Jan. 1, became an unofficial holiday for African Americans in Portland, a day to celebrate freedom.
Locally, this tradition dates to Jan. 1, 1863, the day Abraham Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation. That evening, Black Portlanders such as Elbridge P. Talbot hosted a public celebration at the Sons of Temperance Hall. Talbot, reportedly the first Black man to captain a ship from Portland Harbor, delivered the keynote oration on what the Portland Daily Press called “the great event of the century.”
Following the Civil War, Emancipation Day events in Portland were often held in Black churches: the Abyssinian on Newbury Street and the African Methodist Episcopal on Mountfort Street. Typical celebrations featured readings of the Proclamation, declamations, performances of patriotic music and oyster suppers.
Elbridge Talbot presided over the ninth anniversary celebration in 1872, when American flags and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln adorned the Abyssinian Church. While celebrants cheered Lincoln’s name, the ceremony also centered the Black experience. The reading of George Henry Boker’s poem “The Black Regiment” affirmed the contribution of African American troops during the Civil War. Because the Emancipation Proclamation authorized the enlistment of Black soldiers, Black men such as Woodbury P. Hill of Portland volunteered, bolstering Union ranks. Men like Hill helped save the United States and end slavery.
While Emancipation Day was an occasion to honor past contributions, it was also a moment to reckon with the challenges of the present.
Despite the ratification of the Reconstruction Amendments abolishing slavery (the 13th, in 1865); establishing birthright citizenship (the 14th, in 1868), and protecting voting rights for Black men (the 15th, in 1870), African Americans endured hostility through the late 19th century.
Black Portlanders devoted attention during the 1874 celebration to discrimination against Black teachers in Northern communities. Those attending the 1880 gathering recognized the ongoing Black exodus from Southern states to escape harassment, disenfranchisement and violence.
By 1884, the observance on Jan. 1 featured discussion of the constitutionality of federal civil rights laws. Such conversation was pertinent after the Supreme Court’s decision in the Civil Rights Cases of 1883 jeopardized African Americans’ civil liberties.
Despite the setback, those gathered on Jan. 1, 1886, hoped that “in a half century’s time the whites and blacks will stand side by side on an equal footing.”
If Black Portlanders continued to recognize Emancipation Day after 1886, there was no mention in the pages of the Portland Press. It’s possible that celebrations ceased during the era that the Supreme Court, in Plessy v. Ferguson, enshrined racial segregation. Not even the Reconstruction Amendments safeguarded Black freedom in what historian Rayford Logan named “the nadir” in African American history.
Still, commitment to freedom did not wane after the Plessy decision. Over the next several decades, African Americans in Portland played a central role in the local civil rights movement. Demands for fair housing and equal opportunities led to landmark advances in Maine through the 1960s.
In 1972, a century after Elbridge Talbot presided over Emancipation Day at the Abyssinian Church, Portland civil rights activist Gerald Talbot became the first Black Mainer in the state Legislature. Talbot was among those who applauded the state’s recognition of a new holiday in 1986: Martin Luther King Day.
Whether on Martin Luther King Day, Juneteenth or Jan. 1, celebrations of Black freedom and Black activism have a long history in Maine. Long may they continue, and may we remain committed to securing that “equal footing” that Black Portlanders sought a century and a half ago.
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