Editing Warren, Maine (section)

===Peterborough===
In South Warren was the site of Peterborough, a [[Freedmen's town|black settlement]] first founded in 1782.<ref name="pbh">{{cite book |last1=Price |first1=H. H. |last2=Talbot |first2=Gerald |title=Maine's visible Black history : the first chronicle of its people |date=2006 |publisher=Tilbury House |location=Gardiner, Me. |isbn=9780884482758 |pages=75–82|contribution=The Story of Peterborough 1782-1961|contributor-last=Smith|contributor-first=Marion Barrett}}</ref> Three possible legends try to explain the foundation of this community. 
One suggests that Amos Peters, a black [[American Revolution|Revolutionary War]] veteran from [[Plymouth, Massachusetts]], was working for General [[Henry Knox]]. When Peters married another slave named Sarah, Knox gave the couple land to settle on in what later became Peterborough.<ref name="pbh"/> Following the 1780 [[Quock Walker]] court case, Amos and Sarah Peters were freed from slavery. Another story suggests that General Knox, who served in Virginia during the War, built himself a mansion that matched the style of estates he had seen in Virginia. He recruited blacks to serve as staff for the mansion. As space at the estate and servants quarters shrunk, "Knox sent many of the families to live in the settlement started by Amos and Sarah Peters".<ref name="pbh"/> Another story suggests that many of the original settlers of the community were so-called "limecoasters", black deckhands who were part of the [[Limestone|Lime]] trade from Thomaston to the Southern US.<ref name="pbh"/>

Regardless of the origin, the community grew, having a population of over three hundred people at its peak.<ref name="pbh"/> In 1823, the population of children in the settlement was enough to warrant its own school. In 1845, the town of Warren provided $75 for the building of a schoolhouse in Peterborough.<ref name="pbh"/> The school had both black and white teachers, and attendance averaged between twenty-four and thirty students in a given year.<ref name="pbh"/> The school building also housed church services and social events.<ref name="pbh"/>

The population of the settlement began to decline by the end of the [[American Civil War|Civil War]]. The decline of the shipbuilding industry in the area, coupled with the fact that black people were excluded from factory work, are theorized as some of the factors behind this reduction.<ref name="km">{{cite AV media |people= Kate McMahon|date= January 15, 2021 |title=Land and Liberty: The Historic African American Community of Peterborough |trans-title= |type=video |language=English |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pwADqTosPcA |access-date= May 18, 2022 |archive-url= |archive-date= |format= |time=37:31 |location= |publisher= |id= |isbn= |oclc= |quote= }}</ref> The area was populated by descendants of the original settlers until 1961, when William, Grace and Woodrow Peters moved from Peterborough to a house along [[Maine State Route 90|Route 90]].<ref name="pbh"/> Today the area is made up of newer houses with no residents having roots to the original community.