September 1, 2022 Bob Vernon will present the story of Phoebe, an Indian, and her struggle to regain her freedom In 1752 12-year old Phoebe, an Indian, was sold as a slave in Albemarle County. She petitioned for her freedom and in 1760 an Albemarle jury restored her liberty. However, probably through appeals, she and her children remained enslaved and she petitioned again in 1780 and 1783. The presentation will

July 7, 2022 Dr. Bill Hardin will discuss Robert Pleasants of Curles (Henrico County) who was a Virginia abolitionist during the Revolutionary period. Pleasants was the plaintiff in the case of Pleasants v. Pleasants (1799), a decision by the Supreme Court of Virginia that recognized a legal right to freedom for hundreds of enslaved persons retained in bondage by members of the Pleasants family. Robert Pleasants also founded a short-lived abolition society

June 2, 2022 Lydia Neuroth serves as the project manager for Virginia Untold at the Library of Virginia. She will provide an overview of the two-year NHPRC grant from the National Archives that the Library received in February 2020 which currently funds her position and the processing of free Black registers from 19 Virginia localities and loose records from the City of Richmond, 1794-1865. She will describe recent finds documenting

May 5th, 2022 Kajsa Foskey will discuss heirs’ property, a form of property ownership that is prevalent in African American communities across the rural south. The Department of Agriculture has identified heirs’ property as the leading form of involuntary Black land loss amongst African American landowners. She will use her own family history in Louisa County, Virginia to illustrate the many challenges that arise from this form of ownership and

April 7, 2022 Pen Park is a Charlottesville City Park. Many years ago Lynn Rainville noted there were likely enslaved graves outside the Gilmer, Craven, and Hotopp cemetery. Recently the City of Charlottesville hired a firm which found there are likely 43 or so enslaved graves there. The City asked the Albemarle Charlottesville Historical Society if they would investigate and try to determine the surnames of the families that lived

March 3, 2022 Join us this Thursday – March 3 – to hear Marijean Oldham explore the secrets of Charlottesville, the weird, wonderful, and obscure.

February 3, 2022 Join us this Thursday to hear Dr. Angela Anderson discuss the Original Communities of Free State, Belvedere & Dunlora, specifically where she grew up in Freestate. her research over the past 20 plus years has provided her with some rich historical information and when she came home to visit last year, she was amazed at the progress and changes that have been made since she left and

January 5, 2022 POSTPONED — Bill Hardin will discuss Robert Pleasants of Curles (Henrico County) who was a Virginia abolitionist during the Revolutionary period. Pleasants was the plaintiff in the case of Pleasants v. Pleasants (1799), a decision by the Supreme Court of Virginia that recognized a legal right to freedom for hundreds of enslaved persons retained in bondage by members of the Pleasants family. Robert Pleasants also founded a