According to Gerald Talbot’s Maine’s Visible Black History, page 269, Black men voted in Maine after Maine gained Statehood in 1820. According to Talbot, a 1832 Portland Evening Argus article implies that Black voters were bribed with dinners before the election. “Colored voters have organized a political company called the Sumner Blues,’ Portland Advertiser (August 18, 1860). This Portland Weekly Advertiser article from 1848 mentioning Deacon Niles notes ‘Deacon Niles can’t be cheated by any such humbug – neither can Pierre. They can tell when a heap is all “meal” or something else very quick.” Note that Deacon Niles, and Reuben Ruby’s homes and Abyssinian are all on Sumner Street. The street was renamed, Newbury, after the fire of 1866.
History of the Niles Family & Neighborhood
