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Harriet Tubman: Freedom Fighter, Conductor, Nurse, Soldier, & Spy, a Dr. Cassandra Newby-Alexander Illustrated Presentation

Portsmouth Welcome Center 206 High Street, Portsmouth, VA

Harriet Tubman was a soldier, freedom fighter, Underground Railroad conductor, nurse, and a spy. Yet, her most important role was that of a fierce advocate, defender, protector, and supporter of African American rights. Cassandra Newby-Alexander will explore the life of this extraordinary woman whose journeys took her from Maryland to Philadelphia, PA, Auburn, NY, St. […]

Uncovering and Recentering the Maritime Underground Railroad, Presentation & Booksigning with Timothy Walker

Portsmouth Welcome Center 206 High Street, Portsmouth, VA

Underground Railroad scholarship has focused almost exclusively on interior overland routes used to escape enslavement in the Antebellum South. Largely overlooked, however, is the great multitude of enslaved persons who made their way to freedom aboard merchant vessels plying coastal routes along the Atlantic seaboard. This crucial but neglected aspect of the Underground Railroad story […]

The Archaeology of a Secret World in the Great Dismal Swamp, a Dr. Dan Sayer Illustrated Presentation

Portsmouth Welcome Center 206 High Street, Portsmouth, VA

For many millennia, the Great Dismal Swamp was an important part of the Indigenous people’s landscape in the Mid-Atlantic region. With the settling of Jamestown and the arrival of the first enslaved Africans to the region in 1619, the swamp became a place of defiance, resistance, and a new start to life for potentially tens […]

Speaker Series | Secrets of Portsmouth: Secret Ship of the Naval Shipyard

Portsmouth Welcome Center 206 High Street, Portsmouth, VA

Think you know Portsmouth? A city with such a long and fascinating history is sure to have secrets, and our 2024 Speaker Series – code name “Secrets of Portsmouth” – is set to reveal a few of them! Off the record, of course. All events in this series are free, and open to the public. […]