Sankofa Walking Tour: Port of Entry: Boys and Girls for Sale

Sankofa Trolley Tours: Special Greenland Tour: Ona Marie Judge Staines

Christ Episcopal Church 1035 Lafayette Rd., Portsmouth, NH

Ona Marie Judge Staines, Neither Bond nor Free Sankofa Tour Guide: Tammi Truax Hear the compelling true story of Ona Marie Judge, the woman who successfully evaded the President and Martha Washington to live as a free woman. Visit the historical sites where her courageous story unfolds. On this tour you will learn how Ona was able to elude the Washingtons’ efforts to recapture her and meet some of Portsmouth’s most famous families, the Langdons and the Whipples, who would…

$25

Sankofa Walking Tour: Meet Jack Stains, a “Black Jack” in Historic Old Portsmouth: A Living History Tour

The Old Meetinghouse 280 Marcy St., Portsmouth, NH

Tour Guide & Sankofa Scholar: 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…

$20

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

The Old Meetinghouse 280 Marcy St., Portsmouth, NH

Tour Guide & 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. Register Online

$20

Sankofa Walking Tour: A Quest to Thrive: Economics of Slavery & Portsmouth’s Early Black Community

The Old Meetinghouse 280 Marcy St., Portsmouth, NH

Tour Guide & 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. Register Online

$20

Sankofa Walking Tour: Meet Jack Stains, a “Black Jack” in Historic Old Portsmouth: A Living History Tour

The Old Meetinghouse 280 Marcy St., Portsmouth, NH

Tour Guide & Sankofa Scholar: 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…

$20

Sankofa Trolley Tours

Christ Episcopal Church 1035 Lafayette Rd., Portsmouth, NH

This informative overview of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail is just right for a first visit to the city or for those who prefer an alternative to a walking tour. Our well-trained and experienced Sankofa Scholars narrate an hour and a half tour of sites that tell the stories of Black people from the time they arrived on the colonial-era wharves lining the waterfront, to laboring in the local maritime-related industries, until New Hampshire joined the Union by adopting the…

$25

Sankofa Walking Tour: Port of Entry: Boys and Girls for Sale

The Old Meetinghouse 280 Marcy St., Portsmouth, NH

Tour Guide & 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…

$20

Sankofa Walking Tour: A Quest to Thrive: Economics of Slavery & Portsmouth’s Early Black Community

The Old Meetinghouse 280 Marcy St., Portsmouth, NH

Tour Guide & 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. Register Online

$20

Hancock Walking Tour

Hancock Village 50 Main St., Hancock, NH

Asserting Freedom: A Tour of Cellar Holes & Sites in Hancock, NH Tour Guide: Eric Aldrich Maximum people for this tour is 25. This is a part driving part walking tour. A bus will meet you at the Town Office in Hancock. Town Office Building at 50 Main St, in Hancock. Parking is available behind the Town Office. Please wear sensible walking shoes for this tour. No heels or sandals. You will have a 1/2 mile walk to see old…

$25

Community Dialogue: Memory, Art, Culture, and Black History

Governor John Langdon House 143 Pleasant Street, Portsmouth, NH

Join JerriAnne Boggis of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire; Richard Haynes, artist and University of New Hampshire educator; and Ken Turino of Historic New England for a discussion on how African Americans are represented in art and historical contexts, issues around representation in historic houses and museums, and issues of visibility and erasure. Free and open to the public. Please call 603-436-3205 for more information.

Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire

The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire promotes awareness and appreciation of African American history and life in order to build more inclusive communities today.

Contact Info

Mail: 222 Court Street, Portsmouth NH 03801
Phone: 603-570-8469
Email: info@blackheritagetrailnh.org
COVID 19 waiver
Office Hours:
M - F 10 - 4 pm

Sign up for BHTNH Mail
Get updates on what's happening at the BHTNH, from exhibits and tours to programs and special events.
* = required field
Centrus Digital