Chebacco Author Talk: MDI's 19th Century Foodways and Trade with the Slavery-Based West Indies

Join us for a talk with Anna Durand about her 2025 article in Chebacco, the MDI Historical Society's annual history journal, 'Baked Beans, Brown Bread, Ackee and Saltfish: Mount Desert Island's Nineteenth Century Foodways and Trade with the Slavery-Based West Indies.'

Mount Desert Island's early colonial settlers relied on Caribbean slavery for everyday pantry ingredients, including molasses, coffee, sugar, and rum. Local schooners traded wood products and dried cod for these tropical treats, used in everything from flavoring medicines and gingerbread to hot drinks and cured ham. Resistance to the brutality of enslavement was widespread and constant across the West Indies, even as the goods made there brought wealth and a higher standard of living to the colonists here. Historical newspapers, local store ledgers, and colonial recipes will help us trace the culinary connections between Mount Desert Island and the West Indies.

This program is a collaboration between the Northeast Harbor Library and the Mount Desert Island Historical Society. It will be offered in person and via Zoom and will be recorded for later viewing. To register, go to: https://nehlibrary.libcal.com/event/13287839

Anna Durand lives in Bar Harbor with her husband, Ralph. Her fascination with MDI history began in the late '80s when she worked as a clerk at the Hulls Cove General Store, listening to the "old-timers" tell their stories. She has raised four kids in Acadia and run several small businesses.



Photograph: Store ledger showing sales of rum. Courtesy of Tremont Historical Society

You may also like the following events from Mount Desert Island Historical Society:

• Next month, 10th September, 05:30 pm, What Happened to Civics Class? in Northeast Harbor
• This October, 30th October, 06:30 pm, Chebacco Author Talk: "Farm to Table on Mount Desert Island: A Partial History" with Carl Little in Bar Harbor

Also check out other Arts events in Northeast Harbor, Literary Art events in Northeast Harbor, Kids events & activities in Northeast Harbor.