Portland, Maine 04102 United States
On August 30th at 7:15PM Tate House Museum welcomes audiences to another Backyard Lecture. South Portland Historical Society Museum and Development Director Seth Goldstein has spent the last several years researching Maine and the West Indies Trade. Seth will provide details of the significant economic exchange in which Maine provided food that fed enslaved Africans and materials that built plantations in Caribbean locations such as Barbados, Haiti, and Cuba. Maine merchants exchanged these goods for what at the time what were considered luxury commodities; sugar, rum, molasses, cocoa and exotic spices. Director Goldstein will exhibit how this trade provided a significant source of financial return for merchants from Portland specifically, and Maine generally. You will learn how the urban topography and architecture of Portland was shaped by this economic relationship and the horrid conditions that enslaved Africans endured to produce that wealth. Seth has recently presented this research to a variety of museums, historical societies, church groups and businesses. Seth Goldstein grew up on Cape Cod where he developed his passion for maritime history. He received his bachelor’s degree in European History from the University of California at Santa Cruz and his master’s degree in World History from Northeastern University. His research
interests include the historic North Atlantic fishery, global piracy, New England shipwrecks and lighthouses, the trans-Atlantic slave trade and the Vietnam War era counter culture. He has worked for Greater Portland Landmarks and The Portland Harbor Museum. Seth has taught at the University of New England and Southern Maine Community College and currently teaches at The Maine College of Art and Design. He is a member of the Atlantic Black Project; a grass roots non-profit that examines Maine and New England’s marginalized history and the regions
complicity with the economics of enslavement. Seth is the Director of the Cushing’s Point Museum at Bug Light Park and is the Director of Development for the South Portland Historical Society.
Advance tickets are $12 for the general public, $10 for Tate House members and can be purchased by going to www.tatehouse.org or in our gift shop., At the door tickets are $15 for the general public, $12 for Tate House members. Bring your own blanket or chair and in the event of rain the lecture will move to the Stroudwater Village Church, 1729 Congress St Portland.
FMI; Holly Hurd
Tate House Museum
1267 Westbrook St
Portland ME 04102
hkhurd@tatehouse.org
207-774-6177