As you stroll through Portsmouth, you will discover several bronze plaques with the names Prince Whipple and Dinah Chase Whipple. This famous couple has strong ties to the Moffatt-Ladd House & Garden. Prince Whipple was a boy living in Africa when he was brought to the Colonies. It is unclear if he was from a wealthy family and sent to the Colonies for a better education but then enslaved by the ship’s captain or if he was kidnapped from his homeland and enslaved, then sold to William Whipple. Nevertheless, he became the enslaved manservant to William Whipple at age ten. Prince was educated and taught to read, unlike most enslaved Africans at that time. He was given the name Prince along with William Whipple’s surname as a sign of ownership. We do not know his original name.​ As manservant, Prince accompanied William on his many trips to Philadelphia and the Second Continental Congress. He heard about the fight for freedom of “all men” and no doubt, wondered why he and other Africans were not included. Later, he accompanied General William Whipple to Syracuse and Rhode Island as soldier and bodyguard to battle for the Colonists’ freedom, but not his own. ​General Whipple retired from the Second Continental Congress 1779. On November 12, 1779, Prince and 19 other enslaved African men in Portsmouth wrote and signed what is known as the Petition of Freedom. The men were petitioning the New Hampshire Council and House of Representatives to abolish slavery in the state of New Hampshire. Unfortunately, the petition was denied and 14 of the men were enslaved until their deaths. But not Prince. ​Prince married Dinah Chase in 1781. Dinah was born into slavery in Reverend Chase’s home in New Castle, NH.  She was taught to read and write by the Chase family and freed at the age of 21, upon her marriage to Prince. Prince was still enslaved by William Whipple but was paid wages to work at the mansion once he was married. He was finally given his manumission papers in 1784, a year before William’s early death. After gaining his freedom, Prince Whipple continued to work at the mansion until the end of his life in 1796. Katharine Moffatt Whipple purchased a small plot of land attached to the back garden and loaned it to Prince and Cuffee Whipple (Cuffee was previously enslaved by William’s brother, Joseph) for their lifetime.  Prince and Cuffee moved a small house onto the property and the two families lived there with their children. It was in this house that Dinah founded and ran the Ladies Charitable African School for small children in the early 1800s. This was the first school for Black children in New Hampshire. Dinah ran the school until her retirement in 1832. ​Dinah was one of the last remaining people in the state of New Hampshire who were held in bondage prior to the Declaration of Independence.