Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire

Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire

The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire works to visibly honor and celebrate a truer more inclusive state’s history through exhibits, programs and tours that can change the way our country understands human dignity when it is free of historical stereotypes.

We invite individuals, foundations, corporations, and other organizations to discover how you can be part of this historic endeavor in exploration, interpreting and sharing of New Hampshire’s African-American history.

Portsmouth, New Hampshire has been home to Africans and African Americans for more than 350 years.

Upon examination of their stories, 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. New Hampshire has an African heritage that dates back almost to the arrival of Europeans.

Much of that history, begun in 1645, centers on the state’s only port at Portsmouth. As many as 700 blacks were here by the Revolution, many were caught up in an active Northern slave market while others were part of a little-known free society.