In
1600, roughly 15,000 people lived
in the general region of what is now Maine.
There were no European residents, although
fishers and traders from across the ocean
came to these shores seasonally for codfish
and furs.
By 1620
at least 75 percent of the Wabanaki population
had died of alien illnesses.
By 1700
less than 1,500 of the 15,000 Wabanaki living
in what is now Maine had survived the first
century of European presence. Already 2,500
whites were permanently settled in the region,
and their numbers grew dramatically during
this century of chaos and warfare.
By 1800 Maine’s
Wabanaki population had dropped even farther
to 1000 or less, and the number of white settlers
had soared beyond 150,000.
In 1900
Maine’s Wabanaki population still stood
at about 1000—having dropped below 800
in the late 1800s. But the number of whites
had risen to 700,000.
By the end
of the 20th century, Wabanaki numbers
in Maine had grown to 6000—still less
than half of their number before European
contact, and just .05 percent of the state’s
current total population of 1.2 million. |
Occupations
listed by Penobscots in the U.S. Cenus, 1910 |
