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This story was originally produced by the <\/i>Concord Monitor<\/i><\/a>. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the <\/i>Granite State News Collaborative<\/i><\/a>.<\/i><\/p>\n If someone living in the United States in the early 1800s hadn\u2019t seen a Richard Potter performance, they at least knew someone who had.<\/p>\n Besides his extraordinary feats in magic and ventriloquism, Potter stood out among his entertainment peers for visiting virtually every community in the East: from developed cities to quiet villages.<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s a remarkable thing to be able to say about anyone at a time before railroads, before significant steamboat transportation,\u201d said John Hodgson, a historian who wrote a book on Richard Potter. \u201cThere are all those reasons to think he\u2019s not just interesting, he\u2019s really important. He is a first in so many different categories.\u201d<\/p>\n Potter was considered the first Black celebrity in the U.S. and, as Hodgson argued, the most prolific figure in entertainment of his time. His New England ties run deep, being born in Massachusetts and building a home in Andover, notably known as Potter\u2019s Place.<\/p>\n He and other outstanding Black figures in New Hampshire history will be celebrated as the \u201c5 to Know,\u201d with a reenactment hosted by the Black Heritage Trail of New Hampshire on June 21.<\/p>\n Dariya Steele, the Heritage Trail\u2019s program director, said it was a \u201cno-brainer\u201d to choose Potter and the others, among them a novelist, Revolutionary war veterans and an enslaved woman who freed herself.<\/p>\n \u201cThis 5 to Know campaign that we\u2019re doing is really just a way to get a better understanding of Black history in New Hampshire, and we thought these \u2026 five prominent people and their stories were a great way for people to connect with their lives, and what they did, and why they\u2019re important,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Potter\u2019s magical act included passing coins through wine glasses and plates, breaking eggs into hats and turning them into hot pancakes and walking on fire, according to the New England Historical Society.<\/p>\n Hodgson \u2014 author of \u201cRichard Potter: America\u2019s First Black Celebrity\u201d published in 2018 \u2014 said Potter had \u201cnerve and panache.\u201d Starting his performances in 1815 all the way up to his death in 1835, Potter traveled everywhere he could and worked constantly.<\/p>\n Potter was born in Hopkinton, Mass., in 1783 to a white father and a Black mother, Dinah, who was captured off the coast of Guinea and enslaved. She and her children were freed when the Massachusetts Constitution abolished slavery.<\/p>\n His exposure to magic came from being an assistant to Scottish-born performer John Rannie. He swallowed razors, restored smashed watches and even cut off a chicken\u2019s head and reattached it. After Rannie\u2019s retirement in 1811, Potter set out with his own show.<\/p>\n Despite being a beloved performer, especially among children, Potter was still acutely aware of his identity as a Black man and the danger that came with it. He had to avoid parts of Georgia after a slave rebellion was leaked, leading to dozens of arrests and deaths, Hodgson found in his research.<\/p>\n What he also found was that Potter appeared in Savannah some 10 years later with a circus menagerie that featured fire tricks and gymnastic contortion.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was breaking new ground in the world of menagerie and circus entertainment, and nobody in the world had ever known that,\u201d Hodgson said. \u201cSo he just kept changing and evolving and keeping fresh, which was one of the secrets of his career.\u201d<\/p>\n When Megan Philbrook came to teach at the Andover Elementary\/Middle School 10 years ago, she quickly learned the lore about Potter\u2019s Place, which is used as a key geographic reference for locals.<\/p>\n \u201cYou either live on one side of town or you live near Potter Place,\u201d she said. \u201cProbably in my first year of teaching, they [my students] pretty quickly schooled me on Richard Potter, and it\u2019s just an integral part of town history. Everyone knows who Richard Potter is.\u201d<\/p>\n Philbrook was the 2026 Teacher of the Year, recognized for her in-depth and hands-on teaching style. As part of this achievement, she modeled activities in other schools based on American history and had teachers study her classroom.<\/p>\n Thinking about the U.S. semiquincentennial, Philbrook connected with the Black Heritage Trail to integrate the stories of the \u201c5 to Know,\u201d including Potter, into lessons for schools across New Hampshire.<\/p>\n \u201cHigh school seniors have to have a half credit of New Hampshire history, so utilizing the 5 to Know to help students meet that requirement, it\u2019s an expectation that we need to now be teaching way more New Hampshire history, and these people are just a fascinating part of our state story,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Steele, the Heritage Trail program director, said that many Black stories were lost and had to be uncovered, especially Potter\u2019s. Once the end of the 1800s rolled around, those who had seen Potter\u2019s shows had passed away and his story had been forgotten.<\/p>\n The internet age made it possible to unearth a lot more about Potter, and historians like Hodgson are still uncovering new things about him.<\/p>\n \u201cHistory was erased and forgotten a long time ago, and we\u2019re starting to see a pattern of it happening again,\u201d Steele said. \u201cSo that\u2019s what we\u2019re trying to do, is make sure that people know the importance of this history, that it\u2019s American history, and it\u2019s something that everyone in New Hampshire and beyond should know and should be learning.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\nRichard Potter\u2019s story<\/h2>\n
Teaching Black history in New Hampshire<\/h2>\n