Exeter

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. , These 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.