Newport Black History Walking Tour: Colonial-Era Sites

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Free cancellation

1/7

Duration1h 15m

GroupUp to 25

LanguagesEN

Mobile ticketAccepted

Walk Colonial Newport's Black history through the sites where enslaved and free African Americans shaped the nation

This walking tour of Newport's Historic Hill traces Black history across Colonial-era landmarks marked with Rhode Island Slave History Medallion (RISHM) markers. A live English-speaking guide leads you through Trinity Church, Vernon House and Colony House, connecting the contributions, resistance and struggles of early Black Americans to the broader story of the nation. The tour runs about 75 minutes and covers sites on foot in the heart of Newport's oldest neighborhood.

1h 15m

Step-by-step itinerary

Explore Newport's Black history sites

Visit Trinity Church
See Vernon House exterior
See Colony House exterior

The Experience

Trinity Church, founded in 1698 on Queen Anne Square, anchors the tour as the oldest Episcopal parish in Rhode Island and a National Historic Landmark. Built in 1725–26, it stands as a physical record of the colonial period your guide contextualizes through the lens of Black history. Vernon House follows—the only house in Newport built, improved and maintained with profits from the slave trade, financed by over 40 African slave-trading voyages the Vernon brothers orchestrated. Colony House, the fourth-oldest house in the United States, was constructed by both free and enslaved workers and remains a national landmark. All three sites are toured from the exterior, which keeps the group moving through the neighborhood rather than waiting in queues.

Your guide introduces the early Black Americans whose lives and labor shaped these buildings and this city, moving beyond the surface of the architecture to the acts of resistance and the struggles for freedom that connected Newport to the nation's larger reckoning with slavery. The RISHM markers designate sites of particular significance to this history, and your guide's training in reading them means you are not simply walking past plaques—you are learning what they document and why it matters. The 75-minute pace allows time to stand at each location and absorb the stories without rushing through the neighborhood.

What’s included

Live English-speaking guide trained in Rhode Island Slave History Medallion markers.
access to three Colonial-era National Historic Landmarks on Newport's Historic Hill.
stories of early Black Americans, their contributions and their resistance during the colonial period.

Good to know

Easy physical levelStroller friendlyPublic transport nearbyNot for heart conditions

Operated by Newport Black History Walking Tours

Is this one for you?Book this tour if you want to understand Newport's role in American slavery and the lives of the Black Americans who built and inhabited the city's most iconic colonial structures. The exterior-only format and 75-minute pace work well for walkers who prefer to move through the neighborhood rather than spend extended time inside buildings, and for anyone traveling with infants or small children in a stroller.