Historically Speaking: Henry Mainjoy of Senegal and Exeter
By Barbara Rimkunas
Henry Mainjoy, formerly enslaved by Noah Emery, lived into his eighties in his house on Green Street. Here are a few reminiscences about him from some nostalgic white neighbors.
“It is not necessary that I should say much in regard to Harry. He was well and favorably known to nearly all now living in Exeter and vicinity (this was written in 1879 –by an unidentified commentator to the Exeter News-Letter). “I remember him when he was first brought to Squire Noah Emery’s. Judging from his size I should think he could not have been more than 12 years of age. He was the blackest, sleekest, lithest little chap that I ever saw.”
Virtual program on NH Black Revolutionary War veterans
Portsmouth Herald
HAMPTON The Lane Memorial Library will present an online event “African American Veterans after the Revolutionary War” on Thursday, Feb. 25.
The virtual event will take place at 7 p.m. via the Zoom app available on most PC and handheld devices. No registration is required. This event is free and open to all.
The presentation will be conducted by Barbara Rimkunas, curator and co-executive director of the Exeter Historical Society.
Rimkunas will discuss the Historical Society’s recent research on African Americans in post-Revolutionary War New Hampshire. This program will illuminate the challenges faced by the Black community through the stories of several notable names such as Revolutionary War hero Jude Hall, and will examine some of the reasons the population declined in the late 19th century.
Historically Speaking: Our part in history
By Barbara Rimkunas
In June of 1835, the newly formed New Hampshire Anti-Slavery Society met in Concord. Among the many resolutions passed was this: “Resolved, That this Society earnestly recommend to all its auxiliaries, to circulate, as soon as practicable, in their respective vicinities, petitions for the abolition of slavery and the slave trade in the District of Columbia, and forward the same to Congress, at the opening of the next session of that body.”
The issue of slavery, which even abolitionists had to admit was recognized as legal by the United States Constitution, had become a divisive, intractable, issue by the 1830s. It had not, as many had hoped, withered away due to economic forces. Even with the constitutionally dictated elimination of slave importation in 1808, the use of racially based enslavement continued unabated. In most of the north, the use of enslaved labor was uncommon – many states had outlawed the practi