Posted in African Americans Emancipation & Reconstruction Slavery

Richmond Creating Center on History of Slave Trade at Shockoe Bottom

Richmond, Virginia’s Shockoe Bottom was a center of the slave trade in the United States. Sales of human beings took place there throughout the 19th…

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Posted in Civil War USCT

Marker Placed at Balls Bluff Where First Black Man to Fire on Confederates Fought

The Washington Post reports that on Saturday a new historical marker was placed at the site of the Battle of Balls Bluff alongside the Potomac…

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Posted in Education Jim Crow

Ashburn Colored School A Jim Crow Era One Room School House for Blacks-Only

Several years ago while I was driving to Ball’s Bluff Battlefield in Northern Virginia I came upon this sign announcing that I was at the…

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Posted in Civil War Slavery

When a “Slave Owner” Sought the Help of the Union Army in Re-Enslaving Black People

One experience that many Union soldiers had for the first time in their lives when they were marching through the Confederacy was was encountering enslaved…

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Posted in Places to Visit Uncategorized

Four Sites Added to the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network

Four new sites have been added to the Reconstruction Era National Historic Network These sites are, according to National Parks Traveller: The Gilmore Cabin at…

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Posted in End of War

418 Unmarked Graves of Danville, Virginia’s Freedpeople Have Now Been Located Using Ground-Penetrating Radar

Phase I of Danville, Virginia’s project looking for the burial locations of the city’s formerly enslaved African American population has been completed. Ground penetrating radar…

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Posted in Places to Visit

Four Sites from Civil War & Reconstruction Periods Added to Virginia Landmarks Register

The Virginia Department of Historic Resources has added several sites associated with the Civil War and Reconstruction Era to the Virginia Landmarks Register. Here is…

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Posted in Places to Visit Slavery

Virginia Governor’s Mansion Tours No Longer Mentions Slavery Now That Youngkin Is Governor

NPR reports that Virginia Governor’s Mansion tour in Richmond no longer mentions slavery. Up until the late 20th Century the tours of the historic home…

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Posted in Civil War

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s Confederate Apologist Appointee Resigns

Last week I wrote about Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin’s naming of Ann Hunter McLean of Richmond to the Virginia Board of Historic Resources. McLean went…

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Posted in Memory of Reconstruction Monuments

Virginia Gov. Youngkin on the Defensive After Advisor’s Pro-Confederate Statements

Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin threw down once again in the “History Wars” that seem to have captured the popular right-wing imagination since the killing of…

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