# Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire

The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire grew from the work of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail which was founded in 1995 in Portsmouth. The group's mission is to foster understanding and appreciation of African American history and culture, with the aim of creating more inclusive communities. They offer learning opportunities throughout the year including outreach to schools, guided and self-guided tours, mobile programs, lectures, and workshops. The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire also has programing aimed towards the public such as the Black New England Conference which started in 2006 and the Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talk series which started in 2017.

## History

After the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail was first established in the 1990s, it eventually included 24 sites within the city of Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The trail began in an effort to make the history of black people visible to residents and visitors to Portsmouth. As of 2024, there are markers in fourteen additional towns and cities in New Hampshire and two markers in Kittery, Maine. There are five more to be unveiled in 2025. These markers were added as part of a Mapping Untold Stories program to share the rich history of Black people in New Hampshire.
The first official tour outside of Portsmouth was in the town of Hancock, in western New Hampshire where Jack Ware, a formerly enslaved man, lived in the 1700s.
The Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire would eventually have its own separate location in the summer of 2018 when they moved into 222 Court St. in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The house having historical value due to its age, the house being from 1740, and its connection to a Portsmouth minister.

## Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks

The Elinor Williams Hooker Tea Talks are a yearly series of different public panel discussions that speak on a variety of social and historical subjects involving the African American community. The event was created by and is held by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. The event is named after Elinor Williams Hooker an African American woman, who lived in the state of New Hampshire and who was heavily involved in the community as well as being an activist, she died in 2012. The event has been held since 2017 and remains one of the organizations main yearly events, and is held in the month of February, as well as having some Tea Talks outside the month of February as well.

## Black New England Conference

The Black New England Conference was started back in 2006 by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire. The conference is in its 18th year. Each year the Conference takes on a different topic of African American History, Culture and experience. The conference has covered subjects such as Art, New England Sports, the LGBTQIA+ Community, and many others as it relates to the African American community.

## Historic markers

A selection of markers along the Black Heritage Trail of NH are listed here. Unless noted otherwise, sites are in the state of New Hampshire.
* Rock Rest and Clayton & Hazel Sinclair - Kittery Point, Maine
* Portsmouth African Burying Ground - Portsmouth
* Harriet E. Wilson - Milford
* Nellie Brown Mitchell - Dover
* Richard Potter - Andover
* Nashua Dodgers players Roy Campanella and Don Newcombe - Nashua
* William Hobdy - Derry
* Peter Thom, Jeffrey, Pompey, and Rose - Windham
* North Church - Portsmouth
* Black Revolutionary War Soldier - Exeter
* Northern Complicity Marker - Manchester
* Scipio Page Marker - Dunbarton
* Nehemiah-Hayward Homestead Market - Milford
* Amos Fortune - Jaffrey
* Due Family and Jack - Hancock