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Free Persons of Color in Antebellum Virginia |
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In 1860, Free Persons of Color were ___ percent of the total population of nthe state, but they were neither allowed privileges of full citizenship nor accepted as full members of society. Their stories tell us much about the racial struggles that later Virginia would face after the Emancipation Proclamation.
In particular, free persons of color faced significant challenges to maintain their family life. They faced economic discrimination, hurdles which made keeping their families intact difficult, and state law that required any former slave to leave the state if freed after 1806. This site tells some of their stories. Please contact us if you would like to add to this archive documenting the struggles of free blacks in antebellum Virginia. |
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The proposed web site, “Free Persons of Color in Antebellum Virginia,” will serve as an informational site about family life of freed non-whites in Virginia in the period before the Civil War. The site will provide some general background about understandings of race in Virginia in that period, laws that impacted those who were called free persons of color, demographic information, and stories of how family life of free persons of color was affected by discriminatory legal, economic and social structures of the time. Descendents will be asked to share their understandings of family life as passed down through their ancestors stories.
Since the majority of blacks in Virginia in the period before the Civil War were enslaved, far less energy has been spent on understanding the lives of former slaves who were living in the state in the antebellum period. Although freed from slave labor, these people faced no hope of full citizenship while enduring economic and legal discrimination. These factors impacted the family life of free persons of color. This impact has not been fully considered in the study of antebellum Virginia.
The focus of the project will be to tell some of the stories of family life among free persons of color in Virginia. Because literacy rates among former slaves were low, written family records are not plentiful. Historians find many of their sources in the archives of the county courts or petitions to the General Assembly. Letters or other manuscripts dealing with family life are rare. The site will provide a place where descendents or others may share their understandings of family life among freed slaves in Virginia prior to the Civil War.
The targeted audience is intended to be the descendents of free persons of color as well as other parties interested in Virginia history. It will be challenging to find descendents because both blacks and whites of mixed ancestry may be reluctant to admit their background. Therefore, the site will allow the names of ancestors only to be used to protect the privacy of their descendents.
This site will be developed on a simple technology platform. Therefore, Dreamweaver and Photoshop will provide the basic design features. A Virginia map will be used to present percentages of free persons of color in each county or city in the state, but I have no idea what technology is needed to present this information.
E-mail will be used to invite user contributions. Because the site is asking for stories that are nearly 200 years old, it is unlikely there will be a volume of responses that will require anything more sophisticated.
Curtis Vaughn
October 11, 2008 at 1:20 pm
This sounds like a really interesting project that touches on an area that many are ignorant of. Of course, I always like to be involved so the first thing I thought after reading it was, “Could I be a descendant?” I think it might be really interesting if it were possible to search through genealogical records or something related. There are probably many descendants out there who don’t know much about their ancestors living in antebellum Virginia. Of course, I understand that your target audience is those who have their own stories to tell and are aware of their past, but a passive readership of those learning about the lives of their ancestors might also be worthwhile.
October 13, 2008 at 8:39 pm
Thanks for your input. I am not sure how to incorporate genealogical information, but it is certainly worth consideration. I have thought about links to genealogy sites as one possible solution.
Curtis
October 20, 2008 at 4:13 pm
Ancestry.com is an excellent, although cumbersome site, that has a database with census, birth/death, and other records to look for family members. A few example family trees related to the targets of your stories might help foster the viewer’s interest in researching genealogy, especially since you could link the original source material for the family connections. The source material’s a bit hard to decipher at times, but I think it’s incredible to be able to see it digitized online to prove your family connections.