Dear John,

I hope you will plan to join us this Friday, October 22, from 12-1 PM for our Friday Lunch and Learn, In Mind and Memory | the Remarkable Will of Quash, a Black Man in Eighteenth-Century Topsham.

In the spring of 2020, while working on a genealogy project in the history of a local white family, independent researcher James Tanzer came across a digital copy of the will of a formerly enslaved Black man named Quash, who lived in Topsham, Maine during the eighteenth century.

Eager to learn more about Quash, but unable to find any mention of him in local history books, James decided to research Quash’s life himself. Thus began a months-long project in local history and online archives, during a global pandemic, to uncover the life of Quash and bring his memory to the fore once again in the communities in which he lived. By searching for evidence in Quash’s surroundings, including town records and social connections, not only was James able to find direct evidence of Quash’s life, but build a vibrant picture of a well-connected, motivated, and successful individual, whose story adds weight to arguments that Black history is there to be found, if only we know where and how to look.

I hope to see you Friday,

Kathleen