Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail
2018 Sankofa Guided Tours
Africans have contributed to the economic and cultural fabric of New Hampshire since the 1600s. More than 700 Blacks lived in Portsmouth by the time of the Revolution, many of them caught up as chattel in the lucrative Northern slave market while others were part of a marginalized community of free people.
Experience the history and cultural roots of the early African Community in Portsmouth dating from the early 1600s. Trace their journey as you pass by the elegant and stately homes of some of New Hampshire’s most prominent families and hear their stories from our knowledgeable and experienced tour guides who will ensure you get the best out of your tour.
With its distinctive bronze plaques that identify this community, from its colonial-era African Burying Ground to the modern Civil Rights Movement, the Portsmouth Trail serves as a model across the country on what it means to raise public awareness and appreciation for a region not known for its Black history.
Cost: Most tours are $20 per person. Group size is limited to 25 people.
May 12, July 14, Aug 4
Thirst for Freedom: From NH’s Slave Trade to its Civil Rights Movement
Sankofa Scholar: Nur Shoop
Colonial Portsmouth newspapers testify to the local slave trade, runaways, abolitionists and anti-abolitionist activities, followed by conflicting opinions of the Civil War. In the 20th century, the legacy of that early history was reflected in news about de facto segregation in housing and public places. This tour includes many of those historic landmarks from the early nineteenth through the twentieth centuries.
May 19, June 16
Lives Bound Together: The Washingtons & Ona Marie Judge in NH
Sankofa Scholar: Tammi Truax
During the Spring of 1796, George Washington’s final months in office, Ona Judge, an enslaved woman owned by the First Family, escaped the Executive Mansion in Philadelphia with the aid of that city’s free Black community and made her way to Portsmouth. On this tour, you will hear the true story of Ona’s quest for freedom and the President’s relentless efforts to get her back. See the waterfront where she lands and visit the properties of some of America’s most famous families; the Langdons, Whipples, and Lears, whose stories were also bound to her.
Sankofa Scholars Jubilee Byfield and Valerie Cunningham, Langdon Slave Burial Ground
May 26 Special Memorial Day Guided Tour
African Burying Grounds at Langdon Farm, North Cemetery, and Chestnut Street
Sankofa Scholars: Valerie Cunningham & Jubilee Byfield
Visit the gravesites of enslaved Africans who were among those serving the Seacoast area’s most prominent colonial families. Then proceed to the African Burying Ground where a Memorial park draws attention to the built-over resting places of unidentified people who once walked on Chestnut Street.
June 2, July 28, Aug 18, Oct 6
Meet Jack Stains, a “Black Jack” in Historic Old Portsmouth: A Living History Tour
Sankofa Scholars: Kevin Wade Mitchel as Jack Staines
Seafaring was one of the most significant occupations among both enslaved and free Black men between 1740 and 1865. Black seamen sailed on whalers, warships, and privateers. Some were enslaved and forced to work at sea, but by 1800 most seamen were free to seek adventure and economic opportunity aboard ship. On this tour you will meet Jack Staines, husband to Ona Judge Staines, the President and Martha Washington’s escaped slave, and experience Portsmouth through the life of one of its Black seamen.
June 23, July 21, Sept 15, Oct 27
Ain’t She A Woman: Let me tell you her story
Sankofa Scholar: Valerie Fagin
Can you imagine the hustle and bustle of a prosperous Colonial seaport town? This tour invites you to discover the world of early Portsmouth’s from the perspective of African American women. In spite of enslavement and hardship, these women fought for freedom, defied a president, and educated generations of children to follow. Hear their stories about love and faith and struggle, as you walk past the homes of the families who enslaved them.
June 24, July 7, Aug 11, Sept 8
A Quest to Thrive: Economics of Slavery & Portsmouth’s Early Black Community
Sankofa Scholar: Angela Matthews
Institutionalized slavery in Colonial America provided immense wealth and material culture to many European immigrants and their descendants in the Americas, as Portsmouth’s house museums bear witness. This tour brings into focus an economic system dependent upon the international slave trade with its constant supply of kidnapped unpaid African workers and their descendants, who, against the odds, created one of this country’s oldest Black communities.
June 30, Sept 29
Backyards and Cellar Holes: Who Lived at the MacPhaedris-Warner House?
Sankofa Scholars: Valerie Cunningham & Kevin Wade Mitchell
As focus shifts from the front of the house to the backyards and cellar holes of New Hampshire’s historic house museums, we consider some of the material culture experienced by household servants, including those whose black bodies had helped create their white family’s wealth.
Aug 25, Sept 22
Port of Entry: Boys and Girls for Sale
Sankofa Scholar: JerriAnne Boggis
Local newspapers carried merchants’ ads for ships returning to the port of Portsmouth laden with cargo from trade ports on the West Coast of Africa, the West Indies and the middle Atlantic coastal cities of Colonial America. Visit local wharves and auction sites related to the Atlantic Slave Trade, where a captive could be exchanged for “cash or good lumber” to serve in the master’s house or work on the docks or aboard a ship. See how slavery in the North compared to the South.
9/1, Special Labor Day Tour
Ona Judge Stains, the Runaway Who Outwitted the President
Sankofa Tour Guide: Tammi Truax
This special guided tour will begin at the Portsmouth waterfront where Ona Marie Judge landed after escaping President George Washington’s mansion in Philadelphia and take you to sites where she would have found refuge with families in the Black community of Portsmouth. The tour will end at the Governor John Langdon House Museum with a living history performance featuring Gwendolyn Quezaire-Presutti as Ona Judge. There will be a guided tour of the museum following the performance.
Gwendolyn, a professional actress and storyteller, is listed on the Performing Artist roster at the Connecticut Historical Society Museum, the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism, and the Social Theatre with Young Audiences of Connecticut Arts for Learning.
Hancock Black Heritage Trail Guided Tours
Sunday Sept 9, 10am
Asserting Freedom: A Tour of Cellar Holes & Sites in Hancock, NH
Tour Guide: Eric Aldrich
Hancock, a quintessential New England village, defies the march of time. At first glance, this little village seems to be slumbering away quite peacefully. However, buried just beneath the Colonial veneer of this seemingly all white town is a vibrant history of early Black settlers who worked, bought land, built homes, challenged the church and struggled for freedom. Today, all that is left are the abandoned artifacts of that early life: their roads, their walls, their cellar holes and their scant records.
Discover the stories of Jack Ware a former enslaved man and members of the Due family on this part walking part driving tour with Eric Aldrich as you explore the holes their homes left behind.
When he’s not working for The Nature Conservancy or moving trail cameras around in the woods of Hancock, Eric Aldrich is seeking cellar holes and researching the fascinating lives of the characters that lived there.
