Historical Significance The Howland Chapel School was a one-room school for black children built under the sponsorship of New York educator and philanthropist Emily Howland (1827-1929), an active abolitionist. Howland taught at a school for young…

Historical Significance The Hairston family was one of the largest slave owning families in colonial and pre-Civil War Virginia. Starting in 1730, when Peter Hairston and his four sons arrived from Scotland, the Hairstons amassed a vast tobacco…

Historical Significance Prior to 1863, African-American Baptists in Charlottesville worshiped under segregated conditions, attending services in the balcony of the white First Baptist Church on Park Street. Following emancipation, approximately…

Historical Significance The building that now serves as the parish hall for the Grace Episcopal Church was originally the slave chapel for Bremo, the adjacent plantation of General John Hartwell Cocke. It is the state's only known slave chapel and…

Historical Significance The Booker T. Washington National Monument commemorates the birthplace of this noted educator, orator, author, and advisor to presidents. The enslaved Washington lived with his mother, brother, and sister in a cabin on the…