Portsmouth, New Hampshire has been home to Africans and African-Americans for more than 350 years. This Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail guide takes the reader to a selection of sites where Portsmouth’s black residents lived, worked, prayed and celebrated. It tells stories omitted from three centuries of white historical narrative.

Upon examination we find that against the odds of early enslavement and subsequent marginalization, Africans and their descendants built communities and families, founded institutions, and served their town, state and nation in many capacities.

Black culture informed and transformed American Popular culture. The black presence made other Americans describe themselves as white. The black civil rights movement remains a model for other marginalized Americans and an inspiration to the world. In brief, black history is American history-black history is everyone’s history.

A Letter from the Executive Director:

Greetings, We are a small all-volunteer nonprofit organization dedicated to providing public programs that inform and educate. Through better understanding, audiences of diverse backgrounds are encouraged to find common ground.  Together, we have had remarkable successes.

click here to read more

NH and the Atlantic Slave Trade - April 28, 2012

“Traces of the Trade in New Hampshire” is the theme of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail annual spring symposium on Saturday, April 28, from 9 a.m. until 2 p.m. at the Discover Portsmouth Center, 10 Middle Street.

Based on “Traces of the Trade: A Story of the Deep North,” the documentary which has appeared on PBS across the country, explores New England connections to the Atlantic slave trade.  click here to read more

Finding the African Burying Ground in Portsmouth NH - April 28

Archeologist Kathleen Wheeler will make an illustrated presentation of the findings at the historic African Burying Ground in Portsmouth, NH, on Saturday, April 28 at 1:00 PM, at the Discover Portsmouth Center, 10 Middle St.

This will follow the morning session of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail’s 8th annual spring symposium, this year focusing on NH and the Slave Trade.
Dr. Wheeler will describe the procedures and discoveries when burials were accidentally exposed in 2003 during a public works project. Evidence revealed this to be the earliest documented cemetery for Africans in northern if not all of New England. click here to read more