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This book provides a rare look at African-American life in early New England. Shedding light on Maine's history of slavery, segregation, and integration, the book traces the rise and fall of a long-forgotten community known as Atusville. The book chronicles the facts, fiction, and folklore of the small settlement near present-day Machias founded by London Atus, a slave who earned his freedom in part because of his role in the American Revolutionary War. Among the tales recovered are accounts of the Underground Railroad, racial violence, and the apparitions of the dead.
"The narratives on the founding of Atusville center on the exceptional life of one individual, London Atus, a slave who played an important role in the American Revolution. James Lyons, the owner of London Atus, was the first minister in Machias, Maine.
"The former settlement tells a number of tales that are remarkable in nature: a fabled secret tunnel and buried treasure; the active participation of slaves in the plots and battles of the American Revolution; persistent rumors of the Underground Railroad and confirmed outbreaks of racial violence, two centuries of interracial love and a "fine for fornication'; a school for black children built in the middle of a cemetery and the burning of a local landmark; the recurring sight of the settlement's last resident driving his horse and wagon through the streets of Machias; and the apparitions of the dead appearing in the burial ground containing an unknown number of unmarked graves."
– from the book
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