Hosted by Atlantic Black Box
Join us on Thursday, November 12 for Interconnected Legacies, where descendants of enslaved Africans and white enslaving families in Northern New England discuss unfreedom, resistance, and their interconnected American legacies.
Thursday, November 12, 2026 | 6:00 – 7:00 pm | Online
Prince Whipple, a man stolen from Africa, was enslaved by William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. On November 12, 1779, Prince Whipple, together with 19 other men of African origin, signed a Petition for Freedom requesting their collective emancipation from the New Hampshire Assembly.
Eight generations later, Laurel Guild Yancey and Tonya Ward Singer, descendants of Prince Whipple and the white Whipple and Moffatt families, come together in conversation about their interconnected legacies, past and present, and the ways these histories live on today.
In the spirit of Sankofa, Laurel and Tonya explore such questions as: What can we learn by returning to the past? What do we do with what we find? What do we carry forward from reckoning with past injustice? How do we bring light to interconnected histories of slavery in ways that contribute to healing? Who tells the story? Who benefits? What practices are essential to addressing omissions and centering the full humanity and contributions of people who were enslaved? What legacies will we pass to future generations?
About the Speakers
| Laurel Guild Yancey is a descendant of Prince Whipple, who was enslaved by William Whipple, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, and Dinah Chase Whipple, who founded the African Ladies Charitable School to educate Black children in Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Laurel has spoken at events sponsored by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, the Slave Dwelling Project, the Sons of the American Revolution, and the joint conference of the American Association for State and Local History and the National Council on Public History. Through her historical research, public speaking, and projects, Laurel works to recognize Prince and Dinah Whipple as African and Black American leaders whose lives and contributions were part of the ongoing struggle for freedom and equality. Tonya Ward Singer is an international leader in K–12 language and literacy education and a volunteer co-facilitator of dialogues on histories of slavery with Coming to the Table. Her public history work includes ten years of in-depth archival research and presentations for historical organizations including the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire, the Slave Dwelling Project, the American Association for State and Local History, and the National Council on Public History. Tonya is the sixth-great-grandniece of William Whipple, who enslaved Prince Whipple, and is honored to collaborate with Laurel Guild Yancey to bring light to their interconnected histories. |
About Atlantic World Connections
| Interconnected Legacies is part of Atlantic Black Box’s Atlantic World Connections series, featuring scholars, memory keepers, and community historians working to recover histories of oppression and resistance across the Northeast, a region encompassing the ancestral and present-day homelands of many Indigenous Nations, including the Wabanaki peoples of the Dawnland. Through these conversations, we explore the people, places, and relationships connecting the Northeast to the wider Atlantic world, illuminating histories too often overlooked or suppressed and considering how their recovery can reshape our understanding of the present. |
