Courtesy of Jamey Tanzer

The stories of African Americans in Maine, especially in the 18th century, have not been heavily explored—a fact Special Collections Research Services Librarian Jamey Tanzer is well aware of.

Over the past five years, Tanzer has been exploring the story of Quash Winchell—an enslaved man from Topsham. Tanzer discovered the existence of Quash due to exploration incited by boredom during the pandemic.

“During the first couple months of the pandemic, we’d been sent home from Bowdoin,… and I, like so many of us, just had way too much free time,” Tanzer said. “So I was messing around with familysearch.org and paging through pages and pages of microfilm records that haven’t even been indexed.… In the Lincoln County records,… I found a name that was very unusual to me. The first name was Quash, and a little bell went off in my head.”

As Tanzer conducted research, he began to uncover segments of Quash’s story. Tanzer’s first major discovery was Quash’s will, written in 1788. Within it, Quash spoke of his enslavement, his enslaver Samuel Winchell and how he would be leaving his property to his enslaver’s five daughters. The will also gave Tanzer the ability to find other documents of Quash’s, such as his probate record. Tanzer was baffled by this finding and how much documentation was available on Quash’s life.

“I hadn’t even considered that anyone had been enslaved in tiny, little Topsham in the 1700s, so I was like, ‘Oh my gosh,… I got to learn more about this guy.’ I went online to see if anybody had written a paper or anything about him,” Tanzer said. “I thought, if there’s a will out there, this is such a remarkable document; somebody must have written something about him. And there was nothing, nobody.”

Tanzer presented this research to Assistant Professor of History Caylin Elizabeth Carbonell’s Slavery and New England class in the fall. The class explored the history of slavery throughout New England, focusing mostly on Massachusetts and Connecticut. Tanzer’s research brought in a local example of the history of slavery in the region. Jonathan Lerdau ’25 spoke on his positive impression of Tanzer’s research.

“We spent two months talking about how slavery was prevalent in New England and how it operated. I think [Tanzer’s] level of primary source work was really impressive, and I was amazed that he was able to pull together so many disparate things into this story of Quash,” Lerdau said.

As a social historian, Tanzer thinks it imperative to explore the stories of people like Quash. He hopes that in telling such a local story, people will feel more connected and engaged with the history of slavery in the U.S. and New England.

Tanzer has reflected on Head of Tide Park in Topsham, the former location of Quash’s enslavement back in the 18th century. The park exhibits information about Samuel Winchell, Quash’s enslaver, but nothing about Quash himself. Tanzer hopes that through research projects such as his, the stories of people like Quash can be a part of more widespread narratives and histories.

“It’s maybe because I’m a social historian that I love stories so much, and it’s in telling those unique stories about people that we can connect in a deeper way to that history,” Tanzer said. “I could rattle off numbers about how many people were enslaved in New England or Maine in the 1700s, but it doesn’t become personal until you hear the story of Quash.… It’s all about those personal connections.”