Black Heritage Trail Tours
Portsmouth Exeter Milford Kittery, ME Hancock
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.
Important Tour Information
Unless otherwise stated, all guided tours start at 2:00 PM at 222 Court Street in Portsmouth.
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
BHTNH Covid-19 Tour Information
Current local COVID protocols apply.
For your health and the safety of our guests, if you have any of the following symptoms, we ask that you refrain from joining a guided tour: Cough, Difficulty Breathing, Shortness of Breath, Fever, Chills
BHTNH 2024 Sankofa Guided-Tour Schedule
"Go back and get it"
Ona Judge Day Tour
A Living History Tour
May 21 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Dariya Steele
In 2022, New Hampshire Governor Chris Sununu signed a bill that declared May 21 st to be Ona Judge Day. The declaration honors that day in 1796 on which Ona Maria Judge Staines left the residence of President George and Martha Washington in Philadelphia, boarded a ship to Portsmouth, and lived a long and dignified life in New Hampshire, free, but a fugitive.
On this special Ona Judge Day Tour, you will hear the true story of a young woman’s quest for freedom. See the waterfront where Ona landed and visit the Portsmouth properties of some of America’s most famous families - the Landgons, Warners, and Lears - whose stories are also bound to her incredible journey.
Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.
Thirst for Freedom: From NH’s Slave Trade to Its Civil Rights Movement
May 26, June 2, July 27, August 11, October 19, October 27, November 3 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Nur Shoop
Colonial Portsmouth newspapers testify to local involvement in the slave trade, runaway freedom-seekers, 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 locally in newspaper reports of the struggles to end de facto segregation in housing, employment, and public places. This tour includes many of those historic landmarks from the early seventeenth through the twentieth centuries.
On Saturday Night We Were Husband and Wife: The Black Family
May 25, July 6, August 10, October 26 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Daniel Comly
Despite many obstacles, Black men and women — both enslaved and free — met, nurtured relationships, married, and built families. Learn about obstacles and how they were overcome. True stories about these families describe how Portsmouth’s community of African people and their descendants claimed their place as Americans.
Ain’t She A Woman: Let Me Tell You Her Story
June 1, August 3, September 7, October 12, November 2 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Valerie Fagin
Can you imagine the hustle and bustle of a prosperous colonial seaport town? This interactive tour invites you to discover the world of past and present Portsmouth from the perspective of African-born and next generations of African American women. Learn how, in spite of enslavement and burdens of racial discrimination, these pioneers of change fought for justice and freedom, defied a sitting United States president, and educated generations of children. Hear the stories and celebrate the resilience, versatility, and courage revealed in our shared seacoast his/herstory!
A Quest to Thrive: Economics of Slavery & Portsmouth’s Early Black Community
June 9, July 28, August 18 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Angela Matthews
Chattel 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 sharp focus an economic system dependent upon international and domestic slave traders for a constant supply of free labor, such as the captive African people and their descendants who, against the odds, created one of this country’s oldest Black communities.
Meet Jack Stains, a “Black Jack” in Historic Old Portsmouth
A Living History Tour
June 22, July 21, August 4, September 1 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Tour Guide: Lionel Loveless
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 Portsmouth through the life of one of its Black mariners.
**Please be advised that the September 1st tour will be guided by a substitute tour guide, Nur Shoop. This will not be a Living History tour. We apologize for any inconvenience.
Port of Entry: Boys and Girls for Sale
June 23, July 13, August 31 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Tour Guide: Saniyah Bolton
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. See how slavery in the North compared to the South.
Portsmouth Green Book Tour
Rescheduled due to Weather | New Date: September 7 | 11:00 AM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Nur Shoop
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 guidebook was used as a tool by African American travelers wanting to enjoy themselves without concerns of racism.
Civil rights activists used the travelers’ guides as part of their work, finding Black-owned guest houses and some church people's parlors as safe meeting spots. When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 ended legal and de facto segregation, many smaller independent businesses began to disappear.
Every version of the segregation-era Green Book was a valuable resource, but what is not written on those pages is where the real stories and histories are. This is our story.
Lives Bound Together: The Washingtons & Ona Marie Judge in NH
A Living History Tour
July 20, August 17, September 29, October 13 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Dariya Steele
During President George Washington’s final months in office, a woman named Ona Marie Judge was enslaved in the household of the First Family. In the spring of 1775, she sought her freedom, escaping from the Washingtons' executive mansion in Philadelphia with the aid of that city’s free Black community and making her way to Portsmouth. On this tour, you will hear the true story of Judge’s quest for freedom and the President’s relentless efforts to get her back. See the waterfront where she lands and visit the properties of some of America’s most famous families: the Langdons, Whipples, and Lears, whose stories were also bound to hers.
Prince Whipple and the 1779 Petition
A Living History Tour
July 14, August 25, September 8 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Tour Guide: Stanford Cross
Experience a unique journey into history on our Living History Tour. Get an intimate understanding of Prince Whipple, the brave men who stood with him in signing the Petition of Freedom, his personal insights into the debates for Independence, and his service in the NH militia. The tour takes you to significant sites of his life after freedom, including his family home and the First Ladies African Charitable School established by his wife Dinah. Discover the lesser-known side of Prince Whipple as an influential event manager.
Black Soldiers and the American Revolution
October 20 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Angela Matthews
Soldiers of African descent – enslaved and freed - fought against tyranny alongside colonial patriots who called themselves the Portsmouth Sons of Liberty. It was a fight that did not guarantee freedom for enslaved soldiers. Some who were sent to war by their enslavers received a bounty that, in turn, could be used to buy their freedom. Others were self-emancipated volunteers with the British.
This tour of 18th-century Portsmouth is offered from the perspective of Black men who served New Hampshire in the Revolutionary War, some of whom lived in Portsmouth and surrounding towns. Learn about Black soldiers and their families working with their neighbors and fellow veterans built a tight-knit community that survived well into the 20th century.
BHTNH Expanded Walking Tours
All BHTNH Exanded Walking Tours require pre-registration and payment prior to the tour via our website. This includes walk-ins and same-day registrations as we are unable to register and charge participants onsite at our expanded locations.
Exeter, NH
A Walking Tour of Exeter’s Racial History
June 2 at 1:00 PM & July 28 at 11:00 AM
Sankofa Tour Guide: Barbara Rimkunas
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 dialog about its present and future.
Meeting Place: Exeter Town Hall | 10 Front St, Exeter.
Milford, NH
Not a Slave, yet not Free: Harriet E. Wilson and the Abolition Movement
June 9, July 21, September 22 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Tour Guide: David Nelson
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, ME
Kittery's Black Yankees
July 7 & August 24 | 2:00 PM
Sankofa Tour Guides: Erika Varga, Lillian Buckley, Wanda Dorlean, and Meaghan Dunn
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.
Dover, NH
Exploring Dover’s Black History Tour
July 13 & August 17 | 11:00 AM
Sankofa Tour Guide: Todd Warfield
Dover is steeped deep in rich Black history. On this tour, you'll hear about the people enslaved by the Waldron family and how the cotton mill built in Dover fueled slavery in the South. You'll discover the Brown/Mitchell family: Nellie Brown Mitchell (renowned Black opera singer), her brother Edward Brown, (lawyer, who submitted to Congress a petition for a national anti-lynching bill and first Black justice of the peace in New Hampshire), and her husband Charles Mitchell (Civil War hero and first Black person elected to the Massachusetts legislature).
Join us to discover their amazing stories of community, resilience, and courage.
Meeting Place: Woodman Museum | 15 Summer St, Dover, NH.
Hancock, NH
Exploring Hancock’s Black History: A Hike to Jack’s Pond
September 28 | 10:00 AM | Registration Required
Sankofa Tour Guide: Eric Aldrich
This is a free and sponsored event!
Nestled below the summits of Mount Skatutakee and Thumb Mountain in Hancock, NH, Jack's pond is a remote and inspiring place. It is named after Jack, a formerly enslaved man who became free and lived near the pond from the late 1700s until his death in 1826. The pond and surrounding land are now protected and managed by the Harris Center for Conservation Education.
Join Eric Aldrich and Susie Spikol of the Harris Center for a 2.5-mile round-trip hike to the pond, where we'll hear about Jack and his close connection with the Due family, free Black people who also lived in Hancock at the time.
The tour is on a hiking trail, moderately strenuous. Sturdy shoes/boots are recommended.
Meeting Place: The Harris Center | 83 King's Highway, Hancock, NH
Warner, NH
A Small New Hampshire Town Remembers Its Black History
October 6 | 1:00 PM
Sankofa Tour Guides: Rebecca Courser & Lynn Clark
Rebecca Courser and Lynn Clark will lead a bus tour to explore the Black history of the Davisville section of Warner. We will see locations in Davisville where Black residents lived, worked, and attended school in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
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.
