Judith Granger
Searching for Pomp Russell and Discovering Some ‘Mighty Feisty Mainers’
Upon finding the first American Anti-Slavery Almanac (1836), Granger learned a sorrowful family story — a white mother so bereft that her husband bought her a black baby, to be named Pomp Russell. Granger was inspired to learn more about Pomp’s life and family tree by a friend who could trace their lineage back to the Russells. All Granger knew to start was that Pomp is buried under a NH Revolutionary War stone in the wilderness of Weld, Maine. Discovering how Pomp got there, and finding his family connections, has led to new discoveries of how his family influenced rural Maine’s early 1830s anti-slavery activism.
Judith Granger is a retired educator, a family genealogist with 1600s Essex Co. and Oyster River roots, and now, a citizen historian — someone committed to discovering the stories of rural black citizens living in the wilderness of Maine in the late 1700s to mid 1800s. Why? Thanks to volunteering to help a white friend with the discomforting story of a lost and forgotten black ancestor born in 1761, her goal is now to share Pomp and his extended Russell family’s lives and to learn what they might help us understand. As a qualitative researcher and inveterate storyteller, Granger invites everyone to consider how new richly complex stories might help us grow.
