2026 BHTNH Tours Across New Hampshire

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

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.

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

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.

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 Scholar & Tour Guide: Eric Aldrich
Town: Hancock, NH

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

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

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

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.