[ISL] "The Dark Secrets of this Now-Empty Island in Maine"

[rfmcdonald]

Atlas Obscura's David Jester notes how American eugenicists destroyed a Maine fishing island community.

The cold green waters of the Gulf of Maine lap against the shore of Malaga Island. Lobster traps are stacked on the beach, spruce trees tower high, set against the azure sky. There is a significant absence of life on this small, 40-acre island, save for vegetation and chattering red squirrels, which belies the fact that a small fishing community once resided here.

One can find serenity on Malaga, a striking contrast against its grim past. Unpopulated and overgrown by brush, this island hides a dark truth of Maine’s history, a tragic chain of events spurred by the racist “science” of eugenics married with political corruption.

Malaga Island is located at the mouth of the New Meadows River and now owned by the Maine Coast Heritage Trust. In a state where there are over 4,600 islands off its coast, it is easy to pass by without second glance. It was named for the Abenaki word for cedar and was inhabited in the mid-19th century. Sources disagree about who settled the island first, with Henry Griffin or Benjamin Darling cited as the founder of this community; neither of them ever owned the island. Eventually, a small community of squatters developed, making a living on fish and lobster. During the late 19th and early 20th centuries, it was common to have squatter island groups off the coast of Maine, surviving on what little they could eke from the sea. At the height of Malaga’s population, 42 individuals lived here, and it was set up like any other fishing village along coastal Maine.

But Malaga was different. As a community of mixed races, it drew the attention of those opposed to miscegenation, and Mainers with a bigoted view.

Those who took up residence on Malaga Island were poor, and their life was hardscrabble but, according to researchers, it wasn't much different than the mainland. Tar paper shacks were erected on the island, same as any other part of Maine. The residents were of varied lineages such as blacks, Scottish, Irish, Yankees, and Portugese, and although many couples were not legally married, they lived in as families. This struck moral indignation in the people of Maine.