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A review by queer_bookwyrm
Lost Atusville: A Black Settlement from the American Revolution by Marcus A. LiBrizzi
challenging
informative
fast-paced
3.5
3.5 ⭐ CW: racism, racial slurs
Lost Atusville: A Black Settlement from the American Revolution by Marcus A. LiBrizzi is a short local history book about a Black settlement in Machias, Maine (where I live!). Atusville was a place I had heard a little bit about since going to school at the University of Maine at Machias, where I met the author who was one of my English professors.
It was really fascinating to learn more about the town's history in general, some of which I knew already. Machiasport is the site of the first naval battle of the American Revolution. Citizens of Machias captured and took over a British ship called the Margaretta. We even have a festival in June commemorating that moment, but little is said about Atusville and the Black men that participated in the battle. This book sets out to tell about London Atus, the former slave whom the settlement is named for.
Understandably, there is little left over from that time about the individuals who lived in Atusville, much of that due to racism. Unfortunately, that has resulted in vague details about the very people this book claims to be about. It's almost as if they are side characters in their own stories. I also felt that the author's tone when discussing slavery was a bit too casual and lacked the sensitivity it should have had when discussing enslaved people. Instead, it inspired the tone of "yeah they were slaves, but it wasn't that bad." I've also witnessed this casual ignorance in American Lit classes with this professor as well, and called him out for when we read Uncle Tom's Cabin.
I think this is an okay book if you are just looking to learn a little bit more about local Machias history, but it isn't quite deep enough to feel satisfactory to me.
Lost Atusville: A Black Settlement from the American Revolution by Marcus A. LiBrizzi is a short local history book about a Black settlement in Machias, Maine (where I live!). Atusville was a place I had heard a little bit about since going to school at the University of Maine at Machias, where I met the author who was one of my English professors.
It was really fascinating to learn more about the town's history in general, some of which I knew already. Machiasport is the site of the first naval battle of the American Revolution. Citizens of Machias captured and took over a British ship called the Margaretta. We even have a festival in June commemorating that moment, but little is said about Atusville and the Black men that participated in the battle. This book sets out to tell about London Atus, the former slave whom the settlement is named for.
Understandably, there is little left over from that time about the individuals who lived in Atusville, much of that due to racism. Unfortunately, that has resulted in vague details about the very people this book claims to be about. It's almost as if they are side characters in their own stories. I also felt that the author's tone when discussing slavery was a bit too casual and lacked the sensitivity it should have had when discussing enslaved people. Instead, it inspired the tone of "yeah they were slaves, but it wasn't that bad." I've also witnessed this casual ignorance in American Lit classes with this professor as well, and called him out for when we read Uncle Tom's Cabin.
I think this is an okay book if you are just looking to learn a little bit more about local Machias history, but it isn't quite deep enough to feel satisfactory to me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racial slurs and Racism