Launched in May 2014,  The Prince Project has grown from a simple list of a handful of enslaved people in a small town, to a database of almost 2000 who lived all over the State of Maine before 1800. Slavery in Maine was more widespread than commonly known or taught. These people who were kidnapped in Africa and brought here against their will, played a vital role in our society, and helped create the life we have here today. Their contributions need to be recognized.

This page provides online access to the dataset of The Prince Project. In the search table below, enter one or more terms into a field. For example, entering “Abraham” into the Enslaved First Name field will generate a summary list of all records where the enslaved person has the first name “Abraham.” Clicking on the “detail” field with generate a listing of the entire record.  The table of results appears immediately below the search table. You can download up to 25 records from your search.

NOTE: You may have been referred to The Prince Project from the Northeast Slavery Records Index. If so, the NESRI record included the 4-digit  Prince Project record number. Enter it in the first row below and you will access the full Prince Project record that the NESRI record summarizes.