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

On the eve of the passage of Great Society civil rights legislation in the mid 1960s, Martin Luther King addressed a vast audience of marchers from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. In his speech he referred to “the promissory note” owed to all Americans, guaranteeing that all would share the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Now, 60 years later, we ask if that debt has been paid.  What constitutes a just society and how…

Exeter had the highest percentage of Black residents in NH in the first US census, at nearly 5%. Close to a dozen Black Revolutionary War veterans made Exeter their home upon their return from the War. They raised families and are a strong presence for nearly 60 years. They veterans got their military pensions in the building that is not the American Independence Museum. Black citizens attended integrated schools. One of these citizens, James M. Whitfield, became a nationally known…

Prince Whipple, a young native of Africa, was transported during the Atlantic slave trade to America, and enslaved by William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. In 1779, Prince Whipple, together with 19 other enslaved Africans, submitted a Petition for Freedom to the New Hampshire state legislature. Centuries later, the descendants of African Prince Whipple and the white Whipple and Moffatt families join together in Portsmouth in a conversation about their discoveries of slavery and its legacy through…

Seafaring was one of the most significant occupations among both enslaved and free Black men between 1740 and 1865 when Black mariners sailed on whalers, warships, and privateers. Some were enslaved and forced to work at sea, but by 1800, most seamen were free, legally or by self-emancipation, to seek adventure and economic opportunity aboard ship. On this tour, you will meet Jack Staines, husband to Ona Judge Staines, who was enslaved by the President and Martha Washington, and experience…

Local newspapers carried merchants’ ads for ships returning to the port of Portsmouth laden with cargo from Atlantic Slave Trade ports on the West Coast of Africa, the West Indies, and the Atlantic coastal cities of Colonial America from Maine to Louisiana. 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.…

On July 5, 1852, Frederick Douglass, an abolitionist and heroic orator for liberty, delivered one of his most famous speeches in which he asked, “What to the slave is your Fourth of July?” In addressing an Independence Day observance in Rochester, New York, his speech was a blistering indictment of an American idealism that ignored and accepted the inhuman treatment of enslaved African Americans as part of the country’s identity and economy. Ironically, even though Douglass’ words spoke directly to…

This Sankofa Tour describes some of the local people and places that would help African American travelers find safety and avoid the humiliation often experienced in the North, where racial discrimination could legally prohibit Black people from entering the same spaces as fellow citizens who were white. Many variations of the now-famous “Negro Motorist Green Book” identified useful local area information for travelers. All are evidence of the resilience of Black communities to survive the 20th century’s age of apartheid.  A…

Despite many obstacles, Black men and women — both enslaved and free — met, nurtured relationships, married, and built families. Learn about obstacles and how they were overcome. True stories about these families describe how Portsmouth’s community of African people and their descendants claimed their place as Americans. Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Dan Comly

This tour describes how Africans and their descendants, residents of a northern Atlantic port town. used its resilience and cultural traditions of mutual aid to establish one of Maine's earliest African American communities. You will hear stories about enslaved and freed people living here from colonial times and "Black Yankees" of the modern era, a history often ignored and rarely identified with the heritage of New England. Meeting Place: Wallingford Square Downtown Kittery, ME. Sankofa Tour Guides: Erika Varga and…

Dover is steeped deep in rich Black history. On this tour, you'll hear about the people enslaved by the Waldron family and how the cotton mill built in Dover fueled slavery in the South. You'll discover the Brown/Mitchell family: Nellie Brown Mitchell (renowned Black opera singer), her brother Edward Brown, (lawyer, who submitted to Congress a petition for a national anti-lynching bill and first Black justice of the peace in New Hampshire), and her husband Charles Mitchell (Civil War hero…