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Friday,
May. 22. 2015
7:00pm
The public is invited to an ancestral vigil for those buried at the African Burial Ground. Tonight’s vigil at New Hope Church precedes a reburial ceremony tomorrow at 9 a.m. at the memorial site at Chestnut Street.
Church services are Friday 7 p.m. and midnight and 7 a.m. Saturday with opportunities throughout the night for members of the community to participate.
The Story:
Many in our community have asked how Portsmouth’s African Burying Ground could have been forgotten. During the 1700s when the Burying Ground was actively used, the area that is now Chestnut Street was the undeveloped outskirts of town. Over time, as Portsmouth grew during the late 1700s and throughout the 1800s, the African Burying Ground was paved over and built over and many forgot of its existence. Today, we recognize this important place as the only known African Burying Ground in all of New England that dates to this era