Malaga Island
Library of Congress
In 1863, descendants of Benjamin Darling and their families settled on a small island off the coast of Phippsburg. The multi-racial group made their home there for fifty years, living off the sea and getting by as best they could. During a period of heightened racism, the island community was controversial in the state; many people saw the island and its inhabitants as an ugly mark on the pristine beauty of Maine’s coast. After years of well-publicized legal battles, the State of Maine succeeded in expelling the community of around forty people, committing eight to the newly opened Maine School for the Feeble Minded. By the end of 1912, all visible traces of the settlement had disappeared – houses were moved and the cemetery exhumed.
