Benjamin Darling

Our focus on slavery in class recently reminded me of one of my favorite songs (imbedded above). "The Story of Benjamin Darling, Part 1" is by State Radio off of their 2007 album, Year of the Crow. The song is a retelling of a true New England legend about the slave, Benjamin Darling. In the late 1700's he was enslaved to a captain of a boat that traversed the east coast. When the boat was hit by a storm Benjamin saved his master as the boat was wrecked. In return the master freed Benjamin and gave him land on Malaga Island on the mouth of the New Meadows River in Maine. Ben started a family here which eventually grew into an isolated mixed-race community called the Maroon Society. Meanwhile nearby Phippsburg, Maine was becoming a popular summer vacation spot for rich New Englanders. To make the town more attractive the people of Phippsburg decided to rid themselves of the Maroon Society. They attacked Malaga Island by night and killed or sold into slavery all of its inhabitants.
Besides making a great song this story, while only pertinent to a small group of people, has a lot of historical importance. It disproves a number of misconceptions about slavery: that all slaves were field hands tortured by their owners, that there were no significant black communities during slavery, and that all white Northerners were sympathetic to blacks.