The African American settlement of Willisville in Loudoun County Virginia was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in December. Willisville was a free Black settlement founded by former slaves at the end of the Civil War. The Mosby Heritage Area Association worked with local villagers to apply for National Register recognition. You can read the historian’s report here.
From the historian’s report:
Autonomous land ownership, education, and community worship,53 all previously illegal during
slavery were now all within reach and represented enfranchisement within the new post-war
society. The African American community in Willisville worked towards reaching all three of
these significant milestones.
In March 1868, Colonel Richard Dulany petitioned Lieutenant Sydney Smith at the Freedman’s
Bureau office in Middleburg. Dulany asked for a school:
Large number of colored people in his neighborhood has requested him to apply for
assistance to build a school house … Estimated the cost to be upwards to $500 and
requests the Bureau to furnish aid to the amount of $200 or $300. State that the balance
can be raised for them.
Dulany’s letter identifies the “neighborhood,” confirming that by 1868, there was a community
of African Americans living in close proximity around Willisville but without schools for the
African American children.54 This “neighborhood” likely consisted of freed people previously enslaved on the surrounding farms. On August 28, 1868, the Freedman’s Bureau recorded in
“office notes” that:
the Freedmen have a deed for a ½ acre An [sic] erecting the school house thereon. Size
18 x 30 Log Trustees George Evans, Garner Peters and Benj Berry. They have a teacher
employed named [Mc]Gil Pierce.55 School will probably commence Jan 1, 1869.
The deed for the half-acre lot was located at the corner of “the public road from Clifton Mill to
Union.”57 The deed is notable for its establishment of the self-governing authority of African
Americans over their own community institutions, for the successional ownership of the real
estate, and for the survivorship of the institution
… in trust [for the ] following conditions: 1st exclusive use and benefit of young colored
person and children school determined by school trustees; 2nd lot and school house used
on Sabbath days for holding Sunday school, colored persons holding religious worship
for colored population of neighborhood; 3rd fill vacancy if one resigns…
It is possible that Dulany borrowed these governing tenants from the Methodist Episcopal
Church. The early Methodist Episcopal Church established working relationships between the
church conference, the church trustees, and the local community by acknowledging the desires of
a community and investing community resources to accomplish these community goals. It is also
possible that Dulany borrowed these governing tenants from developments in the Virginia House
of Delegates.60 In any case, this deed is significant for its reflection of the civil tone of the
Reconstruction Era and its emphasis on democracy and rights of all citizens, regardless of race.
By late October 1868, the new schoolhouse was under construction. In November 1868, a letter
from the Freedman’s Bureau identified Henry Mason, a “mulatto” painter living in Middleburg,61
as the contractor for the schoolhouse. Mason hired four men for fifteen days at $2.50 each,
totaling $150.62 The first local pastor for the Willisville Chapel, collocated with the school, was
Henry Carroll, who had a two-year term starting in 1869. Carroll lived in Baltimore, the location
of the Methodist Episcopal conference, but preached at several different churches, including
Paris and Upperville.
Additional information on Willisville can be found here.
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