CONCORD, N.H. (AP) -- Twenty slaves from Portsmouth, who petitioned the state for their freedom in 1779, may have their request posthumously granted by lawmakers over two centuries later.
A group from Portsmouth will make the case for acting on the 234-year-old petition at a public hearing scheduled for Wednesday morning.
The African American Burying Ground Committee brought the petition to the attention of Sen. Martha Fuller Clarke and the Legislature. The committee was created to build a memorial park at the site of the only known African-American burying ground of that era in New England, which was discovered in downtown Portsmouth.
The hearing will be an opportunity for those groups to bring attention to the cultural history of African-Americans in the Seacoast region and throughout the state.