BHTNH Tours Across New Hampshire

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: David Nelson
Town: Milford, NH

Long before her name became known in literary history, Harriet E. Wilson was navigating life in the small town of Milford, New Hampshire.

Wilson, the first known African American to publish a novel on the North American continent, transformed the pain and injustice of her early life into Our Nig (1859), a groundbreaking work that challenged the belief that racism and exploitation were confined to the South.

Born free but bound to indentured servitude until age 18, Harriet endured a childhood marked by labor, instability, and exclusion. This moving tour traces the places connected to her life as a child-servant, young mother, widow, and writer—revealing the experiences that shaped her voice and legacy.

Along the way, you’ll learn about Harriet’s only son, George, whose tragic death in a poorhouse reflected the harsh realities she struggled to overcome. You’ll also discover how Wilson later reinvented herself as a Spiritualist and public lecturer, earning a living by telling her story on her own terms.

Beginning in downtown Milford, the tour concludes at the Harriet Wilson Memorial—the first life-size public statue in New Hampshire dedicated to commemorating a Black person.

This is more than a literary history. It is the story of a woman who refused to disappear.

Meeting Place: The Oval in Milford, NH.

Sankofa Scholars & Tour Guides: Wanda Dorlean and Erika Varga
Town: Kittery, ME

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.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Jenny Tibbits (they/them)
Town: Dover, NH

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.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: David Nelson
Town: Milford, NH

Long before her name became known in literary history, Harriet E. Wilson was navigating life in the small town of Milford, New Hampshire.

Wilson, the first known African American to publish a novel on the North American continent, transformed the pain and injustice of her early life into Our Nig (1859), a groundbreaking work that challenged the belief that racism and exploitation were confined to the South.

Born free but bound to indentured servitude until age 18, Harriet endured a childhood marked by labor, instability, and exclusion. This moving tour traces the places connected to her life as a child-servant, young mother, widow, and writer—revealing the experiences that shaped her voice and legacy.

Along the way, you’ll learn about Harriet’s only son, George, whose tragic death in a poorhouse reflected the harsh realities she struggled to overcome. You’ll also discover how Wilson later reinvented herself as a Spiritualist and public lecturer, earning a living by telling her story on her own terms.

Beginning in downtown Milford, the tour concludes at the Harriet Wilson Memorial—the first life-size public statue in New Hampshire dedicated to commemorating a Black person.

This is more than a literary history. It is the story of a woman who refused to disappear.

Meeting Place: The Oval in Milford, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Jenny Tibbits (they/them)
Town: Dover, NH

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.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Barbara Rimkunas
Town: Exeter, NH

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.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Jenny Tibbits (they/them)
Town: Dover, NH

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.

Sankofa Tour Guide: Eric Aldrich
Town: Hancock, NH
Cost: $35

Join JerriAnne Boggis, executive director of the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, and Hancock writer Eric Aldrich to see where the Due family lived and farmed in Hancock in the late 1770s and early 1800s. We'll visit the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests' Welch Family Farm and Forest and see the former homestead of the Due family, described in early U.S. censuses as free people of color. Also living here off and on was Jack Ware, enslaved as a child in Africa, who later became free.

We'll take a short hike to see where Betsey Due lived until the 1840s and hear Betsey's story of resistance to the Hancock church. We'll also hear from the Forest Society's Dave Anderson about the abandonment of New Hampshire farms in the 1800s and creative ways that the Welch family and others managed to continue farming into the 20th century. There will be some light trail hiking with uneven terrain and little elevation gain. Total hike distance both ways, 1.5 miles. Tour begins with a short bus ride from Hancock Town Offices to Welch Farm.

Co-sponsored with the Harris Center for Conservation Education and Society for the Protection of N.H. Forests.

Meeting Place: Hancock Town Offices, Hancock, NH

** Limited to 30 people. Sturdy shoes/boots are recommended. **

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Barbara Rimkunas
Town: Exeter, NH

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.

Sankofa Scholars & Tour Guides: Lillian Buckley and Meaghan Dunn
Town: Kittery, ME

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.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Barbara Rimkunas
Town: Exeter, NH

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.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guides: Rebecca Courser & Lynn Clark
Town: Warner, NH
Bus Tour Cost: $35

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. **

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: David Nelson
Town: Milford, NH
Special Bus Tour Cost: $35

Step into the life of Harriet E. Wilson, the first known African American to publish a novel in North America—and a woman whose story challenges what we think we know about freedom in the North.

In celebration of the 250th, this special bus tour extends beyond downtown to trace Harriet’s life across the broader landscape of her early years. Visit the site of her birth, the house where she lived, and other significant locations that shaped her journey—places not accessible on a traditional walking tour.

Born free in New Hampshire, Harriet was orphaned at a young age and bound into indentured servitude, where she endured hardship and isolation as she navigated a world that denied her true independence.

Through guided storytelling and reflection, you’ll encounter the experiences that inspired her groundbreaking novel Our Nig (1859)—a bold, deeply personal work revealing how the shadows of slavery extended far beyond the South.

You’ll also learn about Harriet’s life after publication—her struggle to survive as a widow, the heartbreaking loss of her son George, and her later work as a Spiritualist and public speaker, during which she shared her story on her own terms.

This is more than a literary history—it is a journey through place and time, tracing a life of resilience, voice, and truth-telling.

Meeting Place: The Oval in Milford, NH.