As she was doing background research for her most recent book, The Divided North, Alna resident Carol Gardner encountered three ships built in Damariscotta and Newcastle in 1846. All three were used to transport kidnapped Africans into slavery in the Americas. Were these ships built with the slave trade in mind? If not, how did they end up in the illegal traffic? Who was responsible? And what can they tell us about Maine as a so-called “free state” during the age of slavery?