Sankofa Trolley Tours

Tour Guide & Sankofa Scholar: 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’s from the perspective of African American women. In spite of enslavement and hardship, these women fought for freedom, defied a president, and educated generations of children to follow. Hear their stories about love and faith and struggle, as you walk past the homes of the families who enslaved them.…

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…

Tour Guide & Sankofa Scholar: Valerie Cunningham & Kevin Wade Mitchell As focus shifts from the front of the house to the backyards and cellar holes of New Hampshire’s historic house museums, we consider some of the material culture experienced by household servants, including those whose black bodies had helped create their white family’s wealth. NOTE: This tour meets at the Warner House, 150 Daniel St. at 2 pm Register Online

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

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

Tour Guide & Sankofa Scholar: 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’s from the perspective of African American women. In spite of enslavement and hardship, these women fought for freedom, defied a president, and educated generations of children to follow. Hear their stories about love and faith and struggle, as you walk past the homes of the families who enslaved them.…

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…

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…

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