Milford Marker Unveiling Honoring Harriet E. Wilson

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…