Thirst for Freedom: From NH’s Slave Trade to its Civil Rights Movement

Sankofa Tour Guide: Jubilee Byfield 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.…

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: 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. Register Online

Sankofa Tour Guide: Daniel Comly At the turn of the 19th century, Black abolitionists are changing public attitudes about slavery and challenging racial bias in the courts. In Portsmouth, never-enslaved and newly-freed Black adults share households with still enslaved children and elders. It is a time of possibilities, hope and tension. True stories about these families will describe how a community of African refugees were claiming their place as Americans. Register Online

BLACK INK: African American News from Slave Songs to Social Media, Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester NH READ MORE

Trailblazer Harriet E. Wilson: From Servitude to Authorship In early September 1859, the Boston firm of George C. Rand and Avery published Our Nig: Sketches in the Life of a Free Black, a book widely accepted as the first published novel written in English by a Black woman. Wilson was born and raised in Milford, NH. On this tour, you will hear the story of Wilson’s journey from indentured servitude to authorship and visit the sites where her courageous story…

New Hampshire: Beyond Black & White Panelists: David Watters, Darrell Hucks, & (TBA) Moderator: Dottie Morris Location: Keene State College Young Student Center in the Mountain view room Moving Beyond rigid racial identities, this talk will explore the contemporary as well as historic intersection between Black and Indigenous communities, the presence of “passing” mixed race individuals, and the most recent immigrant experience within a New England context. These complex interactions, connections conflicts, experiences, and resistant efforts of Black, white and…

Land, Wealth and Policies of Marginalization Presenters: Meghan Howey, Woullard Lett, & (TBA) Moderator: Meg Peterson Location: Pease Public Library, Plymouth NH Despite improvements in education, social mobility and many other critical areas, large racial and ethnic disparities still exist in the U.S. Years of intentional government policies that removed lands and resources from Native Americans and restricted access for African Americans have created a significant wealth divide in the country that continues to create inequities faced today. This panel…

In the Beginning, There was the Word Presenters: Robert Thompson, Rev. Gail Avery, Rev. Renee Rouse, & (TBA) Moderator: Minister Ray Ealy Location: Nashua Public Library, Nashua NH The relationship between religion and race in American is complex. 20th-century scholars ranked world religions on an evolutionary scale. Not surprisingly, many of the religions deemed “primitive” were also those practiced by indigenous, non-White populations. This evolutionary ranking plays a vital role in the construction, deconstruction, and transgression of racial identities and…

Beliefs are powerful structures within the human mind that help us navigate our social and personal environments. These beliefs do not need to make sense to be deeply held. Our thoughts and feelings, our actions and reactions, respond not to the world as it is but to the world as we believe it to be. This panel will explore the nature of beliefs around race, how they are formed, how they affect us both individually and in social groups and,…

The media – television, the press, radio and the internet – plays an important role in shaping public opinion and reinforcing a society’s beliefs. In informing the public about what happens in the world, the media can shape public debate and focus public interest on particular agendas and thus can influence individual actions and implicit associations. For this panel, presenters will explore how media coverage operates to help form individual beliefs and attitudes around race. They will also explore the…