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African Americans -- History

 Subject
Subject Source: Library of Congress Subject Headings

Found in 51 Collections and/or Records:

Stories of Segregation in Bluefield, Virginia Oral History Collection

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2024-076
Scope and Content

This collection was donated as a research project on the personal significance of the historically segregated neighborhoods of Bluefield, West Virginia, and Bluefield, Virginia. Gregory Galford, Vonnia Davis, Micaela Appelbaum, and Jessica Taylor interviewed residents and former residents of these segregated neighborhoods to reconstruct a previously unrecorded history of how segregated space in this regional hub has changed over time.

Dates: 2023

"The 24th Corps" Manuscript

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2023-063
Abstract

This manuscript entitled "The 24th Corps" was likely written by General Edward O. C. Ord and his assistant Lieutenant Colonel Thomas G. Welles and accounts the troop movements of the 24th Corps of the Union Army during the American Civil War. The 24th Corps was formed in 1864 after the Army of the James separated white and Black troops into two units, the 24th and 25th Corps respectively, and the manuscript discusses this.

Dates: c. 1865

Virginia Manual Labor School of the Negro Reformatory Association of Virginia Letter

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2021-010
Abstract

This letter was sent from G. C. Shippen, acting superintendent of the Virginia Manual Labor School of the Negro Reformatory Association of Virginia, to Mr. F. W. Whittaker of Lynchburg. This letter is a response to a request to commit a young man named Lucien Gilmore to the institution. Shippen writes that the institution is at capacity and that it will be six weeks before they can accept any new inmates.

Dates: 1914

Virginia Receipts for Enslaved Persons

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2022-038
Abstract

This collection contains nineteenth century financial documents, including tax records for various Virginia residents. Also included are several hand-written receipts mentioning the sale or labor of enslaved people, including a Black child named Peter and a Black man named Bob.

Dates: 1823 - 1865

Virginia Republican Party Flyer

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2008-058
Abstract

The Virginia Republican Party Flyer lists the African American Republican candidates for Virginia elected offices in 1921 and includes Maggie L. Walker, the first American female bank president, as the candidate for Superintendent of Public Instruction and John Mitchell, Jr., the editor of the Richmond Planet, as the candidate for Governor.

Dates: 1921

Virginia Tax Receipt

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2021-009
Abstract

The Virginia Tax Receipt includes a pre-printed tax receipt for Peter Logan, dated 1859, from Chesterfield, Virginia. There is a handwritten tax on one free person of color. Almost all printed categories except "Clock" and "Furniture" have been crossed out.

Dates: 1859

Records of the Virginia Tech Black Organizations Council

 Record Group
Identifier: RG-08-02-06e
Abstract

The Black Organizations Council (BOC) was founded on the Virginia Tech campus in 1985, and is the umbrella and resource body for the Black student organizations. According to the organization, BOC serves to ensure the betterment of the Black community through providing a unified voice for the Black community in a university population where the Black community lacks adequate representation. The collection includes documents, photos, VHS tapes, and posters.

Dates: 1982 - 2017

Samuel Williams Ledger

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2023-055
Abstract

The Samuel Williams Ledger contains a "Memorandum of the amount Paid to Each of my Children Toward Their Legacies" with accompanying pages identifying ten children by name along with associated inheritance. The names of 18 men, women, and children enslaved by Williams are listed as well as property such as horses, cows, beds, and land.

Dates: c. 1839-1840

Barbary Wilson Deed of Emancipation for Harry

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2022-077
Abstract

This collection contains a deed of emancipation signed by enslaver Barbary Wilson of Bath County, Virginia, freeing Harry, identified as a Black man, on January 5, 1822. Harry was one of 14 people that Wilson had enslaved and manumitted in 1822.

Dates: 1822

Jeffrey T. Wilson Diaries

 Collection
Identifier: Ms-2011-015
Abstract The collection consists of two diaries (1913, 1928) written by Jeffrey T. Wilson (1843-1929). Wilson was a former enslaved person who spent most of his life in and around Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia. He worked as a bailiff in the Norfolk courts after leaving the U. S. Navy and wrote a column, "Colored Notes," for The Portsmouth Star from 1924 until his death in 1929. He outlived four wives and had at least twelve children. Wilson's diaries...
Dates: 1913, 1928