Free Negroes – The UncommonWealth

Archives

What a Difference a Day Makes: Serendipity in the Reading Room

The Library of Virginia employs both reference archivists and processing archivists. Reference archivists work exclusively with the public—the Library’s front line. Processing archivists work behind-the-scenes…

Callie FreedJanuary 24, 2019

Archives The Stacks

"Nat’s War": The Southampton Slave Rebellion of 1831

On 23 August 1831, Governor John Floyd received a hastily written note from the Southampton County postmaster stating “that an insurrection of the slaves in…

Sonya ColemanOctober 12, 2016

Archives

Old Plats of Pocahontas

Pocahontas Island is a peninsula in the Appomattox River incorporated as part of the City of Petersburg in 1784. The small town became home to…

Louise JonesMay 25, 2016

Archives

Virginia Untold: Requisitions for Public Use

This is the third in a series of blog posts on the record types found in the forthcoming Library of Virginia research database: Virginia Untold: The…

Greg CrawfordJanuary 20, 2016

Archives

A Disregard of Freedom: Burwell versus Pilson’s Administrators

What does it mean to be free? Some might define freedom as having no obligations to a particular thing or person. A free person cannot…

Sherri BagleyDecember 2, 2015

Archives

A Wedding, a Death, and a Pension: Charles and Sarah Butler’s Story

Portsmouth, Virginia, occupied by the Union army, was the scene of a wedding in November 1863. The happy couple was Charles “Charley” Butler, a private…

Bill BynumJune 3, 2015

Archives Digital Projects

Elizabeth City County Chancery Causes Online

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce that digital images for Elizabeth City County (Va.) Chancery Causes, 1747-1913, are now available online through the Chancery…

Sarah NerneyOctober 29, 2014

Archives Digital Projects

Henry Co. Cohabitation Register and African-American Naming Practices

The Library of Virginia has completed the digitization and transcription of the last of the cohabitation registers in its possession, the Henry County Cohabitation Register, 1866.…

Sonya ColemanFebruary 26, 2014

Archives Education & Programming

"hundreds of the descendants of Indians have obtained their freedom:" Freedom Suits in 18th & 19th Century Virginia

A small slip of paper on display in the Library of Virginia’s latest exhibition You Have No Right: Law and Justice in Virginia, running 24 September 2012-18…

Brent TarterSeptember 26, 2012

Archives

Freedmen’s Bureau in the Local Courts

In the years following the Civil War, the Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands (commonly referred to as simply the Freedmen’s Bureau) provided assistance…

Bari HelmsMay 30, 2012

Archives

The Gingaskins of Virginia

November is Native American Heritage Month, a month set aside to recognize the significant contributions the first Americans made to the establishment and growth of the…

Sarah NerneyNovember 16, 2011

Archives

Petersburg Chancery Reveals Rich African American History

The Library of Virginia is pleased to announce that the first installment of images from the Petersburg chancery causes digitization project have been added to…

Vince BrooksSeptember 21, 2011

Manuscripts & Special Collections

David Walker’s "Appeal" in the News

On 3 March 2011 the University of Virginia’s Albert and Shirley Small Special Collections Library announced that it recently purchased a copy of David Walker’s anti-slavery “Appeal…

Roger ChristmanMarch 4, 2011

Manuscripts & Special Collections

David Walker’s Appeal: Anti-Slavery Literature in the Executive Communications

David Walker, a free black man from Boston, wrote to Thomas Lewis in Richmond on 8 December 1829 enclosing thirty copies of the first edition…

Craig MooreFebruary 9, 2011