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Articles 1 - 11 of 11
Full-Text Articles in History
“I Made Fresh Pursuit After Him”: Law, Order, And Sexual Misconduct On The Maine Frontier, Abby Chandler
“I Made Fresh Pursuit After Him”: Law, Order, And Sexual Misconduct On The Maine Frontier, Abby Chandler
Maine History
Contemporary observers and modern historians alike have often por[1]trayed early Maine as a wild frontier with doubtful sexual morals where colonists routinely challenged all known forms of authority. Nevertheless, a full examination of colonial Maine’s sexual misconduct court trials demonstrates that local justices of the peace were ultimately able to draw on longstanding English traditions of legal compromise and mediation to both manage their colonists and build a functional civil society in the face of ongoing political instability. One particular series of sexual misconduct trials, spanning from the colony’s origins in the early seventeenth century to its maturing in the …
The Maine Indian Land Claim Settlement: A Personal Recollection, John M.R. Paterson
The Maine Indian Land Claim Settlement: A Personal Recollection, John M.R. Paterson
Maine History
From 1971 to 1980, the state of Maine grappled with one of the greatest legal challenges ever before it. That challenge had its origin in a suit brought by the Penobscot and Passamaquoddy tribes against the U.S. Department of the Interior seeking the seemingly simple declaration that the department owed a fiduciary duty to the tribes based on a federal law adopted in 1790. That suit was eventually to lead to a suit by the U.S. Department of Justice against the state of Maine, and potentially 350,000 residents in the eastern two-thirds of the state, seeking return of land taken …
The Governor’S Gallows: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain And The Clifton Harris Case, Jason Finkelstein
The Governor’S Gallows: Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain And The Clifton Harris Case, Jason Finkelstein
Maine History
In 1867, Auburn was home to one of the most vicious murders committed in the state’s history. Clifton Harris, a southern black teenager, was corralled for questioning and within hours confessed to the crime. He was tried and convicted solely upon his own confession, without any evidence against him. Harris became only the second prisoner ever to be executed in Thomaston State Prison. Indeed, the de facto abolition of the death penalty had taken place nearly three decades earlier, but Governor Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain steadfastly proclaimed that he would carry out Harris’s death sentence in the face of political opposition. …
Hanging Ebenezer Ball, William L. Welch
Hanging Ebenezer Ball, William L. Welch
Maine History
Ebenezer Ball of Robbinston was the first man hanged for murder in Eastern Maine. A native of Massachusetts proper, he had drifted “downeast,” and become part of a lawless culture endemic to Maine’s borderlands in the early nineteenth century. Suspected of counterfeiting and confronted by authority ,he retreated to the woods, and a lawman died at his hands. Although he might have fled, he stayed, and was tried, convicted, and executed for murder in 1811. Ball’s case is seminal, since it gives us insight into the workings of the criminal justice system in Maine in the years prior to statehood. …
Waldron Vs. Smith: Shipwreck At The Eastward, 1671, Barbara Rumsey
Waldron Vs. Smith: Shipwreck At The Eastward, 1671, Barbara Rumsey
Maine History
A 1672 court case reveals a tale of suspected treachery and shipwreck on the seventeenth-century New England frontier. As the narrative moves along the seaboard from Boston to Nova Scotia., details emerge about little-known aspects of life on the frontier's fringe: the fragile relations with the French and Native Americans, the movable community of coastal shipboard fur traders, and the Sagadahoc settlers who assisted them. Depositions by castaway Boston-based seamen and Sagadahoc residents provide insight into the shadowy figures and conditions that existed beyond the Kennebec River, “at the eastward. Barbara S. Rumsey was born in Buffalo, New York, and …
Neither Hers Nor Theirs: Dower And Household Relationships Between Widows, Family, And Friends In York County, Maine, Christi A. Mitchell
Neither Hers Nor Theirs: Dower And Household Relationships Between Widows, Family, And Friends In York County, Maine, Christi A. Mitchell
Maine History
If architecture expressed a sense of boundaries between family and society and even within the family, the law was central in defining and protecting these. In this article, Christi A. Mitchell, a historian of vernacular architecture from Peaks Island and Alna, Maine, explores the changing definitions of domestic space allotted by law to widows. She uses this aspect of dower rights as a window into changing family relations in the early nineteenth century. Dower assignments reflect an attempt to adapt to shifting household dynamics, to declining emphasis on land-based wealth, to a growing desire for privacy, and to the sanctity …
How To Find And Use Maine's Published Law Court Opinions, Christopher H. Beach
How To Find And Use Maine's Published Law Court Opinions, Christopher H. Beach
Maine History
This research note is designed to assist researchers and teachers using Maine Reports as a rich source on a wide variety of historical topics. It also includes a List of Maine Law Digests and an example of How to Read a Maine Judicial Opinion.
John Appleton: Through His Own Words, William W. Wells
John Appleton: Through His Own Words, William W. Wells
Maine History
This article contains a brief discussion of the legal importance of Judge Appleton and then quotes the text of a letter written by judge which provides insight into his personal qualities.
Development Of The Maine Constitution: The Long Tradition, 1819-1988, Kenneth T. Palmer, Marcus Librizzi
Development Of The Maine Constitution: The Long Tradition, 1819-1988, Kenneth T. Palmer, Marcus Librizzi
Maine History
This article discusses the history of the Maine Constitution, Maine being one of only nineteen states that have retained their original charter. The 158 amendments to the constitution are reviewed.
Constitutional Problems In Maine During The Civil War, David M. Gold
Constitutional Problems In Maine During The Civil War, David M. Gold
Maine History
This article discusses the constitutional issues faced by state judiciaries due to the federal Dred Scott Decision, the Fugitive Slave Act and states’ personal freedom laws.
The Convention Of 1819, Robert B. Williamson
The Convention Of 1819, Robert B. Williamson
Maine History
The article is a transcript of an address delivered by the Honorable Robert B. Williamson, Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the State of Maine at the First Parish Church in Portland, Maine on October 12, 1969 to commemorate the Sesquicentennial of the writing of the Constitution for Maine.