2026 Portsmouth Guided Walking Tours

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

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 Langdons, Warners, and Lears - whose stories are also bound to her incredible journey.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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 the 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!

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 the 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!

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Lionel Loveless

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 the 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!

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Lionel Loveless

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 the 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!

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

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 Langdons, Warners, and Lears - whose stories are also bound to her incredible journey.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

Hear the story of Ona Judge and her courageous journey to self-emancipation.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Bob Sheppard

Join Sankofa Scholar Bob Sheppard, son of a Tuskegee Airman, for a powerful new walking tour exploring the legacy of Black military service from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War era.

Walk the streets of Portsmouth as you uncover the story of Prince Whipple, who fought for freedom during the American Revolution; hear about the imprisonment of Harvey and Daniels at the Navy Yard during the Vietnam War; and learn about Rosary Cooper’s vital contributions on the home front during World War II.

Led by a guide with a personal legacy of military service, this story-driven tour invites you to reflect on the meaning of service, sacrifice, and belonging.

Be among the first to experience this new tour—reserve your spot today.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters, 222 Court St, Portsmouth, NH

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Valerie Fagin

Can you imagine the hustle and bustle of a prosperous colonial seaport town? Step into that world on this engaging walking tour that centers on the lives of African-born and African American women who shaped Portsmouth across generations. Through powerful storytelling, you’ll encounter women who, despite enslavement and systemic racism, fought for justice, defied a sitting U.S. president, and educated generations of children—leaving a lasting mark on this community.

Walk the streets where their lives unfolded, hear their stories, and celebrate the resilience, courage, and determination revealed in our shared seacoast his/her story.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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

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: Daniel Comly

Join Daniel Comly for a moving walking tour that reveals the deeply human stories of love, family, and resilience in early Portsmouth.

Guided through careful research and a commitment to sharing histories beyond his own lived experience, Daniel brings forward the voices and lives of Black families who, in a time marked by enslavement, separation, and uncertainty, formed relationships, married, raised children, and built strong communities.

As you walk through the streets where their lives unfolded, you'll hear powerful, true stories of connection and courage—stories of families who refused to be defined by the limits placed on them and instead claimed their place, their dignity, and their future.

Through storytelling and conversation, this tour invites you to reflect on what it means to build a home, sustain love, and fight to belong

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholars & Tour Guides: Barbara Rimkunas & Barbara Ward
Towns: Portsmouth, Newmarket & Exeter, NH
Bus Tour Cost: $55

The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, in partnership with the Independence Museum and Exeter Historical Society, invited the public to join us for a moving, immersive journey through New Hampshire’s Black Revolutionary War history.

Our day begins on Pierce Island in Portsmouth with an opening ceremony and musket salute, grounding us in the revolutionary moment when ideas of liberty, freedom, and independence were articulated, but not yet extended at all. From there, participants will board a bus for a guided historical tour tracing the lives and legacies of Black New Hampshire patriots from Portsmouth, New Market, and Exeter.

The tour begins in Portsmouth with Prince Whipple, an enslaved man who became a Revolutionary War soldier and signer of the 1779 Petition of Freedom, one of the earliest collective demands by enslaved Africans in New England for emancipation.

We then travel to Newmarket, the hometown of Wentworth Cheswell, a patriot, historian, and town leader who is reported to have carried out his own Sons of Liberty ride, much like Paul Revere's.

Our journey continues to Exeter, New Hampshire’s then capital, where revolutionary ideas were debated, drafted, and put into motion. There, we will hear about Jude Hall, who earned his freedom by fighting at Bunker Hill, and many other veterans. In Exeter, we will also visit the American Independence Museum for lunch and to view a special exhibit that situates New Hampshire within the broader struggle for independence, while inviting us to reflect on whose freedom was secured, and whose was deferred.

We will return to Portsmouth having traveled not just across geography, but across memory and meaning. This tour, part of our Juneteeth celebration, asks us to reckon honestly with American freedom - its promises, its contradictions, and its unfinished work. At a time when Black history is being erased, challenged, or silenced, this program calls us to look at our shared American history with clear, dispassionate eyes. By centering the stories of Black patriots, we gain a fuller, truer understanding of the Revolution and are reminded that the fight for liberty has always been multiracial, complex, and ongoing.

Meeting Place: Peirce Island, Portsmouth, NH at 10:00am

** This tour is part of the 2026 Juneteenth Celebrations and is limited to 30 people. **

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Bob Sheppard

Join Sankofa Scholar Bob Sheppard, son of a Tuskegee Airman, for a powerful new walking tour exploring the legacy of Black military service from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War era.

Walk the streets of Portsmouth as you uncover the story of Prince Whipple, who fought for freedom during the American Revolution; hear about the imprisonment of Harvey and Daniels at the Navy Yard during the Vietnam War; and learn about Rosary Cooper’s vital contributions on the home front during World War II.

Led by a guide with a personal legacy of military service, this story-driven tour invites you to reflect on the meaning of service, sacrifice, and belonging.

Be among the first to experience this new tour—reserve your spot today.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters, 222 Court St, Portsmouth, NH

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters, 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, 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: Valerie Fagin

Can you imagine the hustle and bustle of a prosperous colonial seaport town? Step into that world on this engaging walking tour that centers on the lives of African-born and African American women who shaped Portsmouth across generations. Through powerful storytelling, you’ll encounter women who, despite enslavement and systemic racism, fought for justice, defied a sitting U.S. president, and educated generations of children—leaving a lasting mark on this community.

Walk the streets where their lives unfolded, hear their stories, and celebrate the resilience, courage, and determination revealed in our shared seacoast his/her story.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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

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 Tour Guide: Stanford Cross

Experience a unique journey into history. 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 from his life after gaining freedom, including his family home and the First Lady's African Charitable School, established by his wife, Dinah. Discover the lesser-known side of Prince Whipple as an influential event manager.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Daniel Comly

Join Daniel Comly for a moving walking tour that reveals the deeply human stories of love, family, and resilience in early Portsmouth.

Guided through careful research and a commitment to sharing histories beyond his own lived experience, Daniel brings forward the voices and lives of Black families who, in a time marked by enslavement, separation, and uncertainty, formed relationships, married, raised children, and built strong communities.

As you walk through the streets where their lives unfolded, you'll hear powerful, true stories of connection and courage—stories of families who refused to be defined by the limits placed on them and instead claimed their place, their dignity, and their future.

Through storytelling and conversation, this tour invites you to reflect on what it means to build a home, sustain love, and fight to belong

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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 features many of Portsmouth’s historic landmarks from the early seventeenth century through the twentieth century, linking local history to national and global narratives.

Meeting place: BHTNH Headquarters, 222 Court St, Portsmouth, NH 

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Daniel Comly

Join Daniel Comly for a moving walking tour that reveals the deeply human stories of love, family, and resilience in early Portsmouth.

Guided through careful research and a commitment to sharing histories beyond his own lived experience, Daniel brings forward the voices and lives of Black families who, in a time marked by enslavement, separation, and uncertainty, formed relationships, married, raised children, and built strong communities.

As you walk through the streets where their lives unfolded, you'll hear powerful, true stories of connection and courage—stories of families who refused to be defined by the limits placed on them and instead claimed their place, their dignity, and their future.

Through storytelling and conversation, this tour invites you to reflect on what it means to build a home, sustain love, and fight to belong

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

Hear the story of Ona Judge and her courageous journey to self-emancipation.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Valerie Fagin

Can you imagine the hustle and bustle of a prosperous colonial seaport town? Step into that world on this engaging walking tour that centers on the lives of African-born and African American women who shaped Portsmouth across generations. Through powerful storytelling, you’ll encounter women who, despite enslavement and systemic racism, fought for justice, defied a sitting U.S. president, and educated generations of children—leaving a lasting mark on this community.

Walk the streets where their lives unfolded, hear their stories, and celebrate the resilience, courage, and determination revealed in our shared seacoast his/her story.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Garrett Walker

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, 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 Tour Guide: Stanford Cross

Experience a unique journey into history. 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 from his life after gaining freedom, including his family home and the First Lady's African Charitable School, established by his wife, Dinah. Discover the lesser-known side of Prince Whipple as an influential event manager.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, 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: Daniel Comly

Join Daniel Comly for a moving walking tour that reveals the deeply human stories of love, family, and resilience in early Portsmouth.

Guided through careful research and a commitment to sharing histories beyond his own lived experience, Daniel brings forward the voices and lives of Black families who, in a time marked by enslavement, separation, and uncertainty, formed relationships, married, raised children, and built strong communities.

As you walk through the streets where their lives unfolded, you'll hear powerful, true stories of connection and courage—stories of families who refused to be defined by the limits placed on them and instead claimed their place, their dignity, and their future.

Through storytelling and conversation, this tour invites you to reflect on what it means to build a home, sustain love, and fight to belong

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, 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 Scholar & Tour Guide: Garrett Walker

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Sonya Arroyo

Hear the story of Ona Judge and her courageous journey to self-emancipation.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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: 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 features many of Portsmouth’s historic landmarks from the early seventeenth century through the twentieth century, linking local history to national and global narratives.

Meeting place: BHTNH Headquarters, 222 Court St, Portsmouth, NH 

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

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: Sonya Arroyo

Hear the story of Ona Judge and her courageous journey to self-emancipation.

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.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Tour Guide: Stanford Cross

Experience a unique journey into history. 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 from his life after gaining freedom, including his family home and the First Lady's African Charitable School, established by his wife, Dinah. Discover the lesser-known side of Prince Whipple as an influential event manager.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Valerie Fagin

Can you imagine the hustle and bustle of a prosperous colonial seaport town? Step into that world on this engaging walking tour that centers on the lives of African-born and African American women who shaped Portsmouth across generations. Through powerful storytelling, you’ll encounter women who, despite enslavement and systemic racism, fought for justice, defied a sitting U.S. president, and educated generations of children—leaving a lasting mark on this community.

Walk the streets where their lives unfolded, hear their stories, and celebrate the resilience, courage, and determination revealed in our shared seacoast his/her story.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters | 222 Court Street, Portsmouth, NH.

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 features many of Portsmouth’s historic landmarks from the early seventeenth century through the twentieth century, linking local history to national and global narratives.

Meeting place: BHTNH Headquarters, 222 Court St, Portsmouth, NH 

Sankofa Scholar & Tour Guide: Bob Sheppard

Join Sankofa Scholar Bob Sheppard, son of a Tuskegee Airman, for a powerful new walking tour exploring the legacy of Black military service from the Revolutionary War to the Vietnam War era.

Walk the streets of Portsmouth as you uncover the story of Prince Whipple, who fought for freedom during the American Revolution; hear about the imprisonment of Harvey and Daniels at the Navy Yard during the Vietnam War; and learn about Rosary Cooper’s vital contributions on the home front during World War II.

Led by a guide with a personal legacy of military service, this story-driven tour invites you to reflect on the meaning of service, sacrifice, and belonging.

Be among the first to experience this new tour—reserve your spot today.

Meeting Place: BHTNH Headquarters, 222 Court St, Portsmouth, NH