In 1775，British warships under the command of the notorious（声名狼籍的）Capt．Henry Mowatt shelled and burned Falmouth，an act intended to punish residents for their opposition to the Crown，but which only served to stiffen（使僵硬）Maine’s ardor（热情）for independence．The first naval action of the Revolutionary War occurred in 1775when colonials captured the British sloop Margaretta off Machias on the Maine coast．In that same year，the British burned Falmouth（now Portland），and many Maine men accompanied Col．Benedict Arnold on a long march through the north woods in a valiant（勇敢的；英勇的）but fruitless effort to capture Quebec．An ill－planned expedition by the American naval fleet to regain the British－held fortification（要塞）at Castine in 1779led to the most disastrous naval encounter（遭遇战）of the war．
The Revolution cost Maine dearly．About 1，000men lost their lives in the war，the district’s sea trade was all but destroyed，the principal city had been leveled by British bombardment（炮击），and Maine’s overall share of the war debt amounted［（to）总计，等于］to more than would later be imposed upon it by the Civil War．
After the War of 1812，Maine wanted to separate from Massachusetts．Coastal merchants，who held the balance of political power at the time，resisted the separation movement until the War of 1812showed that Massachusetts was unable or unwilling to provide adequate protection for the people of the district against British raids（袭击，搜捕）．
Delegates met for three weeks in October of 1819in Portland to hammer out（苦心想出）a state constitution，a document strongly rooted in political independence，religious freedom and popular control of government．The president of the convention was William King，a prominent Bath merchant and shipbuilder（造船工程师）who subsequently became Maine’s first governor．
With popular sentiment unified behind statehood，the separation movement went forward．Congress established Maine as the 23rd state under the Missouri Compromise（妥协）of 1820and Long its first governor．This arrangement allowed Maine to join the Union as a free state，with Missouri entering a year later as a slave state，thereby preserving the numerical balance between free and slave states in the nation．
Between 1820and 1860，Maine’s population grew by 300，000．Fishing，mining and logging（〈美〉伐木搬运业）industries grew as well．Wood from Maine’s pine forests was used to make ships and many other products．Ice was also cut out of Maine’s rivers and shipped south．The new state had nine counties and 236towns．Portland was selected as the state capital，but this was only temporary．In 1832the capital was moved to Augusta，a more centrally located site．
The precise boundary line between Maine and New Brunswick remained a matter of often－heated argument for years after the close of the Revolutionary War．The dispute festered（恶化）and smoldered（郁积）until 1839，when it threatened to erupt into open warfare．The Maine Legislature that year raised funds to support a military force of 10，000to protect the state’s border claims at Madawaska．Several hundred British regulars were dispatched（派遣）to the scene from Quebec．At this point the U．S．Congress entered the picture，approving 10million for military expenses should war break out．Nearly 50，000troops were readied for action，and Major General Winfield Scott was dispatched to the scene．Scott managed to work out a temporary agreement between the two parties before the so－called “War of the Aroostook”reached the point of bloodshed（流血）．The Webster－Ashburton Treaty，hammered out in 1842by U．S．Secretary of State Daniel Webster and English special minister Lord Ashburton，finally settled the question of where Maine’s northeast boundary lay．
In addition to lumbering（木材业），the traditional fishing and shipbuilding（造船）pursuits entered a boom period（繁荣［景气］时期）．Ice harvesting，granite（花岗岩）and lime quarrying（采石）also developed as important industries．
Water－powered factories began to spring up beside the numerous sawmills（锯木厂）already located along Maine’s important rivers．Textiles，paper and leather products all became primary sources of manufacturing employment．
Fishing and farming were also important，but were subject to greater economic fluctuations（波动，起伏）．The overall economic picture—although periodically（周期性地）disturbed by such developments as the Civil War and the Industrial Revolution—continued on a relatively prosperous course throughout the remainder of the 19th century．
The world’s first Total Abstinence Society was founded in Portland in 1815．A state organization of temperance societies was formed in 1834，and within a dozen years had developed enough political clout（影响）to force the enactment of a state law prohibiting the sale of alcoholic spirits except for “medicinal and mechanical”purposes．
Under the fiery leadership of Portland’s Neal Dow—known internationally as the “Father of Prohibition”—In 1846，Maine became the first state to pass a law making alcoholic drinks illegal．Manufacturing and selling alcohol remained illegal in Maine until 1856．This so－called“Maine Law”remained in effect，in one form or another，until the repeal（废除）of National Prohibition in 1934．Abolitionist societies were active throughout the state 25years before the outbreak of the War Between the States．
Harriet Beecher Stowe，wife of a Bowdoin College professor，wrote “Uncle Tom’s Cabin”at Brunswick，Maine．
Thus，Maine’s commitment to the Union cause during the war was considerable（值得考虑的），both philosophically and materially．Some 73，000Maine men served with the Union forces，and 10percent of them lost their lives during the conflict．
Maine contributed the services of two great generals，Oliver Otis Howard，who performed brilliantly at Gettysburg and Bull Run，and Joshua L．Chamberlain，the hero of Little Round Top．Chamberlain commanded the Union troops to whom Lee surrendered（放弃，投降）at Appomattox．After the war he was elected governor of Maine．