On a snowy New England day in February 2025, WMUR recently did a news segment on the two new markers in Exeter. The Black Heritage Trail of NH marker was placed in the spring of 2024, and the “America 250” DAR sign was placed in the fall of 2024. Kelly O’Brien of WMUR reports on both of them here. The full text of both markers are below the photo.
Click link to watch the news segment https://www.wmur.com/article/exeter-black-revolutionary-war-soldiers-21225/63776206
Below is the full text of the sign that honors all the Black soldiers and sailors that fought in the Revolutionary War. It was placed in November, 2024 by all 25 NH Chapters of the Daughters of the American Revolution, as an “America 250” project of NH State Regent, Mrs. Kay Sternenberg.
“Many Black soldiers and sailors, including those whose service went unrecorded, played a crucial role in the Revolutionary War. This burial ground serves as the final resting place for several Revolutionary War veterans including at least two Black veterans, Private Jude Hall and Private Tobias Cutler, who are buried in the Northeast corner of the yard near the crypt mound. Possibly many more Black veterans lie at rest here as well. Exeter, the state capital during the war, was also a significant center for Black history in New Hampshire, with a substantial Black population in the post-war period. Their contributions were instrumental in securing United States independence and the freedoms we all share today.”
Below is the full text of the BHTNH marker at the head of Swasey Parkway. It was placed in April 2024 by the Exeter Black Heritage Pocket-Park Committee in partnership with the Black Heritage Trail of NH.
“Exeter, the Revolutionary capital of New Hampshire, included a Black community which was nearly 5 percent of its population in 1790. Although enslaved Africans were forcibly brought here in the early 1700s, after the American Revolution several free Black men and their families, many of whom fought for American independence, found community by coming together and living here.
Those veterans included Cato Fisk, Cato Duce, London Daly, and Jude Hall, whose grandson was Moses U. Hall, a Civil War veteran. London Daly and Rufus Cutler proposed the first society to benefit people of color in the region. Leaders in subsequent generations include ministers Thomas Paul, Nathaniel Paul, Benjamin Tash, and abolitionist poet James M. Whitfield. In the 1800s philanthropists Harriet P.C. Harris and Catherine Merrill provided ongoing support and generous bequests. They were among many Black residents of Exeter who supported one another through struggles and victories.”
In 2023, a large, engraved granite step in the Memorial Staircase of the American Independence Museum, ascending from Front Street, was placed by local author, RM Allen, to honor one of the longest serving soldiers of the Revolutionary War. It reads:
“Pvt. Jude Hall 3rd NH 1775- 1783”
RM-Allen.com 