PBHT African Burying Ground Historic Site: Timeline
In 1995, the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail (PBHTrail) identified as one of the city’s African-American historic sites an
area located between Court and State Streets, from Chestnut Street going toward Middle Street and what once was
known as “Haymarket Square,” bringing recognition to the location referred to in public documents since the early 18th
century as the “Negro Burying Ground.” This was one of the 24 sites included in the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail
Resource Book, distributed to all Portsmouth school libraries in 1996.
In the millennial year of 2000, three years prior to the city accidentally exposing physical evidence of human burials at
the site, the PBHTrail installed its first custom-made bronze plaque on a privately-owned building at the corner of
Chestnut and State Streets. The site-specific text on that historic site marker was complimented by additional
information printed that same year in the original PBHTrail pocket guidebook with a map locating the burial ground and
23 other sites on the Trail.
Concurrent with the 20th anniversary year of the PBHT, the city completed it’s construction of the Portsmouth African
Burying Ground Memorial on Chestnut Street. The gracefully landscaped city park with statuary and informational
markers surround a burial vault custom-built for the reburial of human remains that had been disturbed during a public
works project in 2003. At least five more in-tact coffins lie undisturbed under the sidewalk just outside the memorial’s
decorative fence and fragments of human skeletal remains were found elsewhere under the street, leading to much
speculation about the actual number of burials under the existing 19th century houses.
Ongoing research will inevitably bring more understanding about the African-American community that has spanned four
centuries in New Hampshire, from the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade to the Age of Obama.
Over the years, this paved and built-over section of town has been an especially unsettling experience for guests taking
PBHTrail guided tours, raising unanswerable questions and conflicting emotions. The City’s creation of a memorial as part
of this forgotten cemetery could have become just another bureaucratic monument in yet another park – instead, those
who visit this place seem to find humanity. Many are inspired to express their feelings, some in song or dance or poetry,
while others stand in meditative silence. May it ever be so!
This timeline provides historical context for identifying “the negro burying ground” as part of the Portsmouth Black
Heritage Trail (PBHT) and advocating for the more appropriate title of “African Burying Ground.”
1641
Slavery is legalized in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, which includes the Royal Province of New Hampshire.
Able-bodied male and female captives from West African communities provide colonists with cheap labor while colonial
governors collect additional revenue from owners of taxable property, itemized as slaves.
1705
As the Portsmouth settlement prospers, a need for additional burial ground is discussed without resolution.
An undefined area west from Chestnut Street toward Haymarket Square (now Middle Street), between State and Court
Streets, is commonly referred to by the dominant community as “the negro burying ground.”
1758
A large gambrel-roofed mansion is built near the northwest corner of the burying ground, signaling future
development in the area.
1760
An appointed committee considers and rejects a location near “the negro burying yard” for Portsmouth’s new market
house. The market house would be built at the corner of Bow and Market Streets.
1813
Wooden houses, outbuildings, and a fire engine shed are located at the site of “the negro burying ground.”
1989
Publication of “First Blacks of Portsmouth” in Historical New Hampshire (Vol.44, No.4) by Valerie Cunningham attracts
interest in this little-known early African-American community.
Cunningham begins public lectures discussing information culled from local records documenting the presence of
Africans and their descendents in New Hampshire since 1645, including burial customs and references to the “negro
burying ground” at Chestnut Street.
1993
The “Negro Burying Ground” at Chestnut Street is selected as one of the sites in Portsmouth for inclusion in a teachers’
guide to local African-American history, a project of the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
The project subcommittee creates the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail (PBHT) and designs a logo.
The first PBHT brochure is a list of 26 Black history locations in Portsmouth, including the “Negro Burying Ground” at
Chestnut Street and the “Langdon Slave Cemetery” at Lafayette Road.
Discussions begin about creating permanent site markers.
1995
Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail registers as an independent all-volunteer nonprofit educational organization in the State
of New Hampshire with five incorporators: Valerie Cunningham, Charles DeGrandpre, Judith (Faust) Harris, Sandra
(Pettiford) Lee and Mark J. Sammons.
Founding PBHTrail members include Jeffrey Bolster, Geraldine Copeland, Kelvin Edwards, John Ernest, Jody Fernald,
Raymond Harris, Gene Hill, Marcia Jebb, Nancy Lukens, Christopher Remignanti, Jennifer Stiefel, David Watters, TJ
Wheeler, and ex officio: Irja Cillufo, Elaine Krasker and Angela Matthews.
Guides are trained for a Labor Day preview tour of PBHT sites - more than 70 people arrive for the walking tours!
1996
The “Negro Burying Ground” is one of the designated tour sites described in the PBHT Resource Book, 1st edition, written
by Sammons and Cunningham. Duplication and free distribution of the 300-page teacher guide to public schools is made
possible by the New Hampshire Charitable Foundation.
PBHT volunteers respond to requests for speakers and teacher workshops around the State. PBHT brochures are widely
distributed and many non-teachers request Resource Books.
1998
Updated and with a revised format, the 2nd edition PBHT Resource Book replaces the 1996 version in schools; copies go
on sale to the public locally and by mail order across the country.
Docent training workshops introduce the PBHT Resource Book at Strawbery Banke Museum and other historic
house museums.
1999
Requests continue for PBHT educational programs and lectures, accompanied by brochures that list the “Negro Burying
Ground” along with the other historic sites.
Christ Episcopal Church hosts a rededication service at the “Langdon Slave Cemetery” on Lafayette Road.
PBHT plans fundraising campaign to create and install 24 site-specific permanent historic site markers.
Text for a bronze plaque at the site of the “Negro Burying Ground” is one of the first to be completed by the PBHT Site
Markers Committee: Valerie Cunningham, Kelvin Edwards, Marcia Jebb and Jennifer Stiefel.
2000
PBHT installs its cast bronze plaque on the building at the corner of State and Chestnut Streets, identifying this as the
area known as the old “Negro Burying Ground.” Many incredulous visitors pose for pictures at this historic site marker.
2001
The “Negro Burying Ground” is described in one of the 26 bi-weekly feature articles written by Jennifer Vento
for the Portsmouth Herald. Vento receives a prestigious newspaper award for her journalism.
Designed as a self-guided walking and driving tour, PBHT also provides guided tours by appointment, including a visit to
the paved and built-over area identified as the “Negro Burying Ground.”
2002
Valerie Cunningham, as director of PBHT, is invited by the City of Portsmouth’s supervisor in charge of a major utilities
project to meet at City Hall where she is informed of the upcoming work schedule and is given a project map detailing
“Limits of Excavation at Historic Cemetary [sic].” The City’s hired archeological consultant also explains the required
preliminary explorations of the project area.
PBHT consults with Strawbery Banke Museum’s staff anthropologist about sensitivity concerns regarding the “Negro
Burying Ground” during this planned public works project.
PBHT consults with legal advisors regarding the protocols set by the City for its public works project at the “Negro
Burying Ground.”
2003
Wooden coffins containing human remains are exposed while digging deep under Chestnut Street.
PBHT is called upon by the Mayor to represent the ‘descendant community’ and to act on behalf of the unidentified
ancestors.
Chief Oscar Mokeme of Portland, Maine, responds to a request by PBHT to perform a cleansing ritual at the burial site for
the archeology team and others present during the 7-day exhumation of remains.
PBHT consults with the Chief State Archeologist and a DNA biochemist regarding expectations and ethical responsibilities
for scientific analysis and reburial of human remains.
PBHT urged the City to cease using the Colonial-writers’ title and refer to the cemetery as the “African Burying Ground,”
to be consistent with Black self-naming practices of that era.
The Mayor appoints the director of PBHT to serve on a Blue Ribbon African Burying Ground Committee that will make
recommendations to the City Council on how to proceed.
2004
PBHT invites experts from New York and Boston to participate in a series of public information meetings regarding the
archeological findings at the African Burying Ground, specifically: why DNA sampling is important; the educational value
of forensic analysis on human remains; and what can be learned by dating coffin wood.
Because of Portsmouth’s historical connections to West Africa through the Atlantic Slave Trade and a growing awareness
of the significance of Portsmouth’s African Burying Ground, the “Sister City Connection” is initiated by PBHT and seeks
approval by the City Council for adoption of a sister city in Ghana. Although the adopted sister city is officially identified
simply as Accra (the large metropolitan capital of Ghana), the actual Sister City Connection is being built with the more
demographically compatible suburban village of Abouri.
Chief Oscar Mokeme leads a public gathering in a ritual of remembrance at the site of the African Burying Ground.
2005
PBHT hosts a visit of two kings from our Sister City Connection with Abouri and neighboring Kitase, in Ghana. They are
welcomed by Governor Lynch, Mayor Sirrell, the president of the University of New Hampshire along with many faculty
and students, and other dignitaries and citizens across the State.
The chieftains are deeply moved during their visits to the African Burying Ground at Chestnut Street and to the Langdon
Slave Cemetery at Lafayette Road, commenting that “our ancestors could be buried here.”
2006:
In recognition of PBHT completing ten years of educational programming that far exceeded expections of its founding
members, the organizational papers and related archival materials are donated to UNH Special Collections at Dimond
Library: http://www.library.unh.edu/find/archives/collections/portsmouth-black-heritage-trail-papers-1993-2011
The archival collection includes the identification of the “Negro Burying Ground” and other Black heritage sites adopted
as part of the Portsmouth Black Heritage Trail in 1995.
2008:
PBHT facilitates the donation of 24 computers for a new technology center to the Sister City Connection in Abouri,
Ghana.
Ten people join a two-week tour of Ghana organized by PBHT to coincide with the formal opening and dedication of the
New Hampshire Digital Technology Center in Abouri. Highlights of the Ghana visit include the WEB Dubois Institute,
Nkrumah Memorial, and two Cape Coast slavetrading forts, and a ceremony in Abouri that enstooled Elizabeth Doucette
as Honorary Queen Daughter and Valerie Cunningham as Honorary Queen Mother.
National Geographic Traveler recognizes the contribution of PBHT to Portsmouth’s high rank on its list of world historic
places.
The director of PBHT is honored by the National Trust for Historic Preservation and HGTV at a formal awards dinner in
Washington, DC for working to protect America’s cultural treasures.
2009:
Interpreting New England slave cemeteries is the topic of this year’s annual PBHT Spring Symposium, featuring Keith and
Theresa Stokes of ‘God’s Little Acre’ in Rhode Island.
2010:
Beverly Morgan Welch, executive director of Boston’s Museum of African American History, gives keynote at PBHT Spring
Symposium on slavery and the Civil War.
Chief Oscar Mokeme leads a vigil at the African Burying Ground site in memory of the long forgotten dead.
PBHT celebrates July 4 Independence Day with a play performed by Jukwaa Theatre Company about the escape of Ona
Judge from slavery in the household of George and Martha Washington.
Keynote address for PBHT’s annual Black New England Conference by John W. Franklin, director partnerships and
international programs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture in Washington, D.C.
2011:
The annual PBHT Spring Symposium examined the absence of slaves’ representation in Civil War memorials, with
references to the African Burying Ground as an example of invisible history.
2012:
The PBHT Spring Symposium focused on New Hampshire’s involvement in the Atlantic Slave Trade, closing with a visit to
the site of the African Burying Ground.
2013:
“Sankofa Tours” become the new name of PBHT guided tours that introduce the public to local Black history sites,
including the African Burying Ground.
The 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Justice is celebrated locally with a larger-than-expected
street march from the PBHT office building to the African Burying Ground site at Chestnut Street.
2014:
Elinor Hooker Williams Winter Tea Talks continue to provide opportunities for public conversations on race in response
to increasing awareness of the African Burying Ground and current events.
PBHT Sankofa Tours continue to guide local residents and visitors to sites that highlight local Black history since 1645,
culminating at the city’s African Burying Ground Memorial park.
2015:
PBHT and the Center for New England Culture produce a local Black history curriculum for K-12 teachers that can
provide a context for understanding the existence of an African Burying Ground and discussion about why it was
forgotten.