Wentworth Cheswill’s Ride: Chasing a Would-Be American Folk Hero

Less renowned than Paul Revere, Wentworth Cheswill was a messenger during the Revolution. He was the grandson of an enslaved man of Exeter and the son of a carpenter traditionally linked to the framing of notable Portsmouth buildings like the John Paul Jones House and Stoodley's Tavern at Strawbery Banke. Cheswill was also a soldier, schoolmaster, pioneering archaeologist, lifelong public servant, county judge, founder of an early lending library, and likely the first person of African descent elected to public office in American history. This program by author and artist John Herman reflects on how the Cheswill family story was nearly lost to time and what it means to recover it now. It is a reexamination of American memory, historical mythmaking, and the untold stories that can still shape our understanding of the past.