CVHR Holiday Gathering and Conversation

December 3, 2020 – 4 PM

In December, we typically gather to share our projects, talk about how we’ve been spending time, and simply celebrate the holidays.  

As best we can, we’re going to replicate that gathering via Zoom, and we so hope you can join us to share, to hear, and to spread the holiday spirit with us all.  Bring a slice of pie for yourself or scoop up a sugar cookie (with icing, of course), and plan to celebrate and hear what we’ve all been doing this year. 

The History and People of Locust Grove Plantation with Sam Towler

November 5, 2020 – 4 PM

Locust Grove farm was the name of a pre-civil war farm whose boundaries are currently within the City Limits of Charlottesville. Current day Locust Ave. in Charlottesville is located in the center of the former farm and named after the farm. Starting with no contact with the former owners, the Sinclairs, or their enslaved, Sam will go over what documentary sources are available to find out who the former enslaved people were on the farm.

Finding the People Who Helped Build UVa with Shelley Murphy

October 1, 2020 – 4 PM

Over 10 years ago, a group of UVA students proposed creating a memorial to acknowledge and honor African Americans’ contributions to the university. The project responds to a deep need to address an untold and uncomfortable history while building community. Shelley was hired to conduct genealogical research for descendants of the enslaved laborers who helped to build the University of Virginia. Shelley knew this project would present challenges in conducting slave era research. She will share her process of doing reverse genealogy, challenges, and resources.

Purveyors of the Lost Cause: Charlottesville’s Neo-Confederates

September 3, 2020 – 4 PM

Join us on Thursday, Sept 3 for our next virtual meeting of the Central Virginia History Researchers (CVHR).

Our speaker will be Jalane Schmidt:

Who erected Charlottesville’s Confederate monuments, and what did these monuments signify to these individuals? This presentation will give an overview of the local neo-Confederate organizations that were instrumental in planning and fundraising for, and promoting and installing the Confederate monuments which are placed in the Charlottesville community. The materials to be presented are drawn from diaries and memoirs, late 19th and early 20th century primary sources written by members of these organizations — the John Bowie Strange Camp of United Confederate Veterans, the R.T.W. Duke Camp of the Sons of Confederate Veterans, and the United Daughters of the Confederacy, Albemarle Chapter — contemporary newspaper accounts and Confederate Veteran Magazine articles, WPA interviews with former slaves, and more recent secondary sources, such as Ervin Jordan’s regimental history of the 19th Virginia Infantry and the UVA Nau Center for Civil War History’s “Black Virginians in Blue” project.

History Bound Together: The Slaughter Families of Culpeper with Kay Slaughter

July 2, 2020 – 4 PM

This is a report on ongoing research about a white slaveowner and one of the families of the enslaved using oral history, a farm journal, and other documentation.

A New Map Of Old Albemarle with Erik Irtenkauf

June 4, 2020 – 4 PM

Erik Irtenkauf will discuss a new digital map of historical locations in Albemarle and Charlottesville. The map includes churches, farms, mills, schools, old roads and railroads, as well as historical aerial photos and maps like the 1907 Massie map and 1875 Peyton map. This tool is designed as an easy-to-use resource for CVHR members and others in the community who are conducting research and want to understand the historical landscape.

Entangled Histories: Racial Capitalisms, Resistances, and Space in Central Virginia

May 7, 2020 – 4 PM

This month, our presenter will be Alissa Ujie Diamond, a PhD candidate in UVA’s PhD in the Constructed Environment program. She will be presenting her preliminary research in support of her dissertation entitled “Entangled Histories: racial capitalisms, resistances, and space in Central Virginia.” She will discuss the overall structure of her dissertation work, and early findings on the processes of racialization and segregation of Charlottesville’s urban and symbolic spaces from the 1890s to the 1920s.

From Highland to Florida

March 5, 2020 – 4 PM

In March, Miranda Burnett and Martin Violette will discuss their research on what has heretofore been a major missing piece of the history of James Monroe’s Highland: the fate of the enslaved families Monroe sold to Florida. A complement to the extensive work that the team at Highland has done to locate and give decision-making power to the local descendant community, this investigation, which began in 2015, led not only to meeting in Florida with the descendants of that group, but also to meeting an Albemarle county community of descendants, which in turn led to the beginning of a reunion of these two communities which have not had contact with each other for over 190 years. In the process of investigating the plantation to which Monroe sold the enslaved from Highland, a far-reaching network of social, political, and economic forces are exposed, revealing the depth of the machinery of enslavement involved with this plantation. The lives of the enslaved of this plantation – Casa Bianca – including those from sources other than the Monroe sale, are the subject of continuing research. To make this information available to family historians, genealogists, and other interested parties a website has been created which includes historical sketches and a genealogical database, now including 290 individuals, which can be searched online without requiring passwords or any sign-in.

Additionally, Burnett and Violette will discuss some very recent developments in their research and their work with other organizations.

Virginians Go To Iowa!

February 6, 2020 – 4 PM

Next Thursday, February 6th, Joan Burton will be discussing the people, including some of her ancestors, who left Albemarle to go to Muchakinock, Iowa. She’ll be sharing their motivations, experiences, and profiles in her presentation. Don’t miss out on this fascinating tale of how the people of the Blue Ridge Mountains became the people of the Iowan Hills.

Researching Descendant Communities Responsibly with Hannah Scruggs

January 2, 2020 – 4 PM

Join us on the first Thursday of January to hear Fluvanna County daughter, genealogist from the National Museum of African American American History, and former research associate for the descendant community at Montpelier as she discusses how we can respectfully and responsibly research and contact descendant communities in our work. She’ll share the missteps she’s witnessed and considerations she’s seen honored in her extensive work in this research as well as guide us all in this important aspect of our work.