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

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 now-freed Black adults share households with not-yet-free elders and children who are owned by their buyers. It is a time of possibilities, hope and fear. True stories about these families will describe how a community of Black Americans were striving to create a life and place in this northern…

A Virtual/Hybrid Conference October 22-23, 2021 Southern New Hampshire University, Manchester, NH #BNEC2021 Traditional African spirituality acknowledges that there is no real separation between the spiritual and the rich fabric of everyday life. In this traditional worldview, spirituality informs everything including politics, economics, survival, healing, death and rebirth. The 2021 Black New England Conference explores paths forward from legacies of racism to collective accountability and collective healing. Presenters will examine the ongoing impacts of enslavement, murder, mass incarceration, unethical medical…

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Martino During the Spring of 1796, George Washington’s final months in office, Ona Judge, an enslaved woman held 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…

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Angela Matthews The African Burying Ground Memorial is one of at least six locations in the city where Black Americans and Africans have been laid to rest. Hear the stories and remember. ** These tours will meet at 222 Court Street, walk to the African Burying Ground, then return to individual cars at 222 Court Street to drive to the remaining cemeteries.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Nur Shoop Colonial Portsmouth newspapers identify the local slave traders, runaways, abolitionists and anti-abolitionists, and abolitionist activities, followed by conflicting opinions of the Civil War. By the 20th century, the legacy of that early history was reflected in news about de facto segregation in housing, employment, and public places. This tour includes many of those historic landmarks from the early nineteenth through the twentieth centuries.

Location: Stokel Commons, Portsmouth Middle School Presenters: Nikita Stewart, Assistant Editor, New York Times Elizabeth DuBrulle, Director of Education & Public Programs, NH Historical Society Erin Bakkom, Social Studies teacher, Portsmouth Middle School. Moderator: Sen. David Watters, NH State Senator and Professor Emeritus Department of English, University of New Hampshire States across the country have seen new laws prohibiting the teaching of so-called “divisive concepts” that present critical perspectives on histories, laws, social practices, and literature that have excluded the opposing voices…

Location: Levenson Room, Portsmouth Public Library Presenters: Paul & Denise Pouliot, Chief Speakers for the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook and Abenaki People Kathleen A. Blake, Retired Educator James Edgell Jr., Mohawk/Mi’kmaq and Micmac/Newmarket Chick Wabanaki Relation Anne Jennison, NH Commission on Native American Affairs, Affiliate Faculty Member for the UNH Native American & Indigenous Studies Minor, Northeast Native American storyteller. Moderator: Svetlana Peshkova, Associate Professor of Anthropology & Coordinator of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor, UNH Many organizations across the state have been…

Location: Stokel Commons, Portsmouth Middle School Presenters: Pawn Nitichan, Executive Director, City-Year New Hampshire Samuel Hyun, Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Advocate, and Public Speaker Sandeep Bikram Shah, Senior Program Officer at New Hampshire Charitable Foundation Moderator: Delia Konzett, Professor of English and Women’s and Gender Studies, UNH. The mass shooting in Atlanta last year and the rise in anti-Asian attacks during the Co-Vid 19 pandemic have brought to the forefront the long history of discrimination and injustice toward Asian Americans. Since the…

Location: Levenson Room, Portsmouth Public Library Gene Martin, Associate Director Development, and Plymouth SU Alumni Association Board Chair Plymouth State University Elizabeth Lahey, Attorney and former head of the Civil Rights Unit of the NH Department of Justice Sharon Tarleton, Bias Response & Support Coordinator, UNH Moderator: Anthony Poore, Executive Change Agent, and Consultant According to the 2020 Census, the fastest-growing group in the United States is the multiracial community, and nationwide studies show that 44% of adoptions in America are transracial. Coming from households…