Sankofa Trolley Tours

      A Juneteenth Celebration Celebrating the Art of Activism, Cultural Resistance & Everyday Protest Saturday, June 17, 11am-3pm & 7pm– 8:30pm Middle Street Baptist Church 18 Court Street | Portsmouth, NH 03801 ART, MUSIC, DIALOGUE & SONG  Cultural resistance is the broad use of arts, literature, and traditional practices to challenge unjust or oppressive systems within the context of nonviolent actions, campaigns and movements. For this year’s celebration, local African American artists Joel Gill and Richard Hanes will share stories…

TOUR DATES: JUN 24, JUL 22 Port of Entry: Boys and Girls for Sale Sankofa Tour Guide:  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…

MAY 13, JUN 3, JUL 1 (INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND), AUG 5, SEP 9 Let Freedom Ring: Resistance, Abolition and Civil Rights                                                           Sankofa Tour Guide: Nur Shoop Colonial Portsmouth newspapers testify to local the slave trade, runaways, abolitionists and anti-abolitionist activities, followed by conflicting opinions of the Civil War. In the 20th century,…

TOUR DATES: MAY 20, JUN 10, JUL 8, AUG 12, SEP 16 Creating Community: White Enterprise and Black Society  Sankofa Tour Guide: Angela Matthews Institutionalized slavery in the Americas 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 unpaid labor of enslaved African captives and their descendants who, against the odds, created one of this country’s…

TOUR DATES: JUL 15, AUG 26, SEP 16, SEP 23 Out of the Shadows: Enslavement and Emancipation Sankofa Tour Guide: Kevin Mitchell Daily life for enslaved children and adults in New England was variable according to the occupations of their owners and the changing seasons of the year. Captives became taxable property with few human rights, yet each individual was endowed with a particular range of abilities and talents, with different experiences and opportunities shaping their lives before, during and…

TOUR DATES: JUN 24, JUL 22 Port of Entry: Boys and Girls for Sale Sankofa Tour Guide:  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…

TOUR DATES: JUL 29, SEP 30 Backyards and Cellar Holes, (Warner House) Sankofa Tour Guide: Valerie Cunningham NOTE: This tour meets at the Warner House on Daniel St. at 2pm As focus shifts from the front of the house to the backyards and cellar holes of New Hampshire’s historic house museums, we consider the material culture experienced by household servants, including those whose black bodies had helped create white family wealth. Tours are $20 pp Purchase Online or pay cash…

MAY 13, JUN 3, JUL 1 (INDEPENDENCE DAY WEEKEND), AUG 5, SEP 9 Let Freedom Ring: Resistance, Abolition and Civil Rights                                                           Sankofa Tour Guide: Nur Shoop Colonial Portsmouth newspapers testify to local the slave trade, runaways, abolitionists and anti-abolitionist activities, followed by conflicting opinions of the Civil War. In the 20th century,…

TOUR DATES: MAY 20, JUN 10, JUL 8, AUG 12, SEP 16 Creating Community: White Enterprise and Black Society  Sankofa Tour Guide: Angela Matthews Institutionalized slavery in the Americas 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 unpaid labor of enslaved African captives and their descendants who, against the odds, created one of this country’s…