2025 BHTNH Expanded Walking Tours
Expanded Walking Tours
Important Tour Information
Tour start location varies based off town - please take note of the location listed on the registration form. All tours start at 2:00 PM unless otherwise specified.
Please plan to arrive at least 15 minutes prior to departure time. If you do not arrive 5 minutes before departure time, your spot may be given to another participant. Tours typically take 90 minutes.
Registration is required prior to taking tours. If you have not pre-registered, and if there is space available, we will register you onsite to join the tour.
There is a maximum of 20 participants per tour.
Cost
$20 per person
$15 (with ID) for Seniors & Military
$10 Students
Tours offered by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire (BHTNH) reveal the region's rich and often forgotten African American history. The stories our Sankofa Scholars have uncovered and now share with visitors illustrate how the earliest Africans in this country were committed to self-determination, resourcefulness, and community service. This nuanced American history continues to shape our collective present and future.
These themed guided tours allow visitors to realize a truer more inclusive history of New Hampshire, connect with ancestral roots, and see the intricately woven cultural cloth that is New Hampshire.
2025 Expanded Tour Schedule
A Small New Hampshire Town Remembers Its Black History
Sankofa Tour Guides: Rebecca Courser & Lynn Clark
We will meet at the Soldier’s Monument in Warner and carpool to the village of Waterloo where we will explore its Black history. The tour will include the village school, train station, Camp Newton (a summer camp for children whose parents were overseas missionaries), and homes that Black people worked in, owned, or rented. Employers Nehemiah Ordway, one time governor of the Dakota territories and U.S. Senator William E. Chandler summered in Waterloo and ties the little village into national politics. Bring a folding chair, water, and wear closed-toed walking shoes.
Meeting Place: Warner Town Hall | 5 East Main Street, Warner, NH
This tour will be from 1 PM to 3 PM. Please wear sturdy walking shoes.
Not a Slave, yet not Free: Harriet E. Wilson and the Abolition Movement
Harriet E. Wilson was the first known African American to publish a novel on the North American continent. Born a free person of color in New Hampshire, Wilson was orphaned when young and bound as an indentured servant until the age of 18. Follow a trail to places where the child-servant went as she was growing up and where she struggled to make a living. Learn about Harriet's only son, George, who died in a poor house while she was trying to survive as a widow.
Wilson's book was published in 1859 with her original title, a device to engage the reader in her fictionized autobiography, Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North, Showing that Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There. She wrote only one novel. Wilson went on to be known as a Spiritualist and was paid on the public lecture circuit to talk about her life.
Meeting Place: The Oval in Milford, NH.
Kittery's Black Yankees
This tour describes how Africans and their descendants, residents of a northern Atlantic port town, used their 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: Parking Lot of Lil's Cafe | 7 Wallingford Square, Downtown Kittery, ME.
Not a Slave, yet not Free: Harriet E. Wilson and the Abolition Movement
Harriet E. Wilson was the first known African American to publish a novel on the North American continent. Born a free person of color in New Hampshire, Wilson was orphaned when young and bound as an indentured servant until the age of 18. Follow a trail to places where the child-servant went as she was growing up and where she struggled to make a living. Learn about Harriet's only son, George, who died in a poor house while she was trying to survive as a widow.
Wilson's book was published in 1859 with her original title, a device to engage the reader in her fictionized autobiography, Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North, Showing that Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There. She wrote only one novel. Wilson went on to be known as a Spiritualist and was paid on the public lecture circuit to talk about her life.
Meeting Place: The Oval in Milford, NH.
A Walking Tour of Exeter’s Racial History
Walk in the footsteps of Exeter’s earlier generations and explore the racial history of the town -- the conflicts, concessions, and changes that have taken place over time and continue to shape its future. Learn about Exeter's legacy related to Atlantic slave trading and hear stories about African Americans who helped shape the town's history.
Learning Exeter’s history can contribute to a richer community dialogue about its present and future.
Meeting Place: Exeter Town Hall | 10 Front St, Exeter.
A Walking Tour of Exeter’s Racial History
Walk in the footsteps of Exeter’s earlier generations and explore the racial history of the town -- the conflicts, concessions, and changes that have taken place over time and continue to shape its future. Learn about Exeter's legacy related to Atlantic slave trading and hear stories about African Americans who helped shape the town's history.
Learning Exeter’s history can contribute to a richer community dialogue about its present and future.
Meeting Place: Exeter Town Hall | 10 Front St, Exeter.
Kittery's Black Yankees
This tour describes how Africans and their descendants, residents of a northern Atlantic port town, used their 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: Parking Lot of Lil's Cafe | 7 Wallingford Square, Downtown Kittery, ME.
A Walking Tour of Exeter’s Racial History
Walk in the footsteps of Exeter’s earlier generations and explore the racial history of the town -- the conflicts, concessions, and changes that have taken place over time and continue to shape its future. Learn about Exeter's legacy related to Atlantic slave trading and hear stories about African Americans who helped shape the town's history.
Learning Exeter’s history can contribute to a richer community dialogue about its present and future.
Meeting Place: Exeter Town Hall | 10 Front St, Exeter.
Not a Slave, yet not Free: Harriet E. Wilson and the Abolition Movement
Harriet E. Wilson was the first known African American to publish a novel on the North American continent. Born a free person of color in New Hampshire, Wilson was orphaned when young and bound as an indentured servant until the age of 18. Follow a trail to places where the child-servant went as she was growing up and where she struggled to make a living. Learn about Harriet's only son, George, who died in a poor house while she was trying to survive as a widow.
Wilson's book was published in 1859 with her original title, a device to engage the reader in her fictionized autobiography, Our Nig; or Sketches from the Life of a Free Black, in a Two-Story White House, North, Showing that Slavery's Shadows Fall Even There. She wrote only one novel. Wilson went on to be known as a Spiritualist and was paid on the public lecture circuit to talk about her life.
Meeting Place: The Oval in Milford, NH.
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Tour Guides
A Quest to Thrive: Economics of Slavery & Portsmouth's Early Black Community; Black Soldiers and the American Revolution
On Saturday Night We Were Husband and Wife: The Black Family
Exploring Dover's Black History
Volunteer, Warner Historical Society
Thirst for Freedom: From NH's Slave Trade to its Civil Rights Movement; Portsmouth Greenbook Tour
Researcher, Merrimack County
Port of Entry: Boys and Girls for Sale
Prince Whipple and the 1779 Petition
Ain't She a Woman: Let Me Tell You Her Story
Preserve Black History in New Hampshire