Browse Items (16 total)

For his bravery during battle in the American Civil War, Sergeant William H. Carney was the first African American to be awarded the Medal of Honor.

Norfolk

A free African American before the Civil War, William Breedlove won election in 1867 to a convention called to rewrite Virginia's state constitution.

Essex

A teacher and principal for more than thirty years, Sarah A. Gray had a profound influence on the education of African Americans in Alexandria.

Alexandria

With "a decided taste for freedom," Sara Lucy Bagby was embroiled in a celebrated legal case that tested the infamous Fugitive Slave Act during the secession crisis.

Wheeling

Appointed a captain in the Confederate army, Sally Tompkins managed a hospital in Richmond during the Civil War.

Richmond

Having experienced as a slave the devastation of separated families, Lucy Goode Brooks founded the Friends’ Asylum for Colored Orphans.

Richmond

Born enslaved, Lucy Goode Brooks founded the Friends' Asylum for Colored Orphans in Richmond.

Richmond

Kate Mason Rowland is best known for her biography of her great-great-granduncle George Mason.

Richmond

Isabella Gibbons learned to read while enslaved and later educated hundreds of African Americans as a teacher in the freedmen's schools and public schools of Charlottesville.

Charlottesville

After his family was suddenly sold out of the state in 1848, he shipped himself in a wooden crate to freedom in 1849.

Richmond