Tour Stop 9: African American Ground Overlook
Watch your step as you walk through the stones. Sunken spots, iron posts, small markers are all tripping hazards! Also, please never step backwards unless you double-check what you're stepping on first.
View of African American ground (by Ron Romano)
Black people have a rich history in Portland even though records predominately present it through White perspectives. Though many in the earliest Black population were likely enslaved and African, a thriving neighborhood of free Black people lived near this corner of the cemetery. The Abyssinian Meeting House, the first Black church in Maine and third oldest in the United States, was built in 1829, and is just across the street from the back of the cemetery. Burial records were not well-maintained for Black people, and many of their graves were left unmarked. We know that hundreds were buried here, for in the 1820s, a second ground was designated since this section was full. We’ll visit that ground later in this tour.
Later Reads
Continue to Stop 10: Quaker Ground
From the crest of the hill, turn back towards Funeral Lane. There’s a narrow grassy path that leads you back. About at the halfway point to Funeral Lane, pause, and look to your left for an area of small round-top marble markers set at a diagonal to the other stones in the cemetery. You have reached Stop 10, the Quaker Ground.