Shades of Black: Connected by Color, Culture & Community

Sankofa Tour Guide: 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 from the perspective of African American women in America. In spite of enslavement and hardship, these women fought for freedom, defied a sitting president, and educated generations of children. Hear their stories about love of family and community, about faith and struggle, as you walk past now-silent homes built by the…

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 plaque to be unveiled September 18 in Hancock will be the newest addition to the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire’s statewide historical marker program. The Hancock marker will describe the Due family and Jack, a once-enslaved African who gained his freedom and lived in Hancock in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The Due family, identified in early censuses as free people of color, endured many issues with the Church of Christ in Hancock around the same time.…