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Madison, Dolley (1768–1849)
Dolley Madison was the wife of James Madison, the architect of the U.S. Constitution and fourth president of the United States (1809–1817). She was the third woman to serve as what is now called...
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Southern Claims Commission in Virginia, The
The Southern Claims Commission was created by Congress on March 3, 1871, to compensate southern Unionists for property appropriated by the Union army during the American Civil War (1861–1865). Although...
View ArticleSpeech by John C. Underwood (January 16, 1868)
In this speech delivered to the Constitutional Convention on January 16, 1868, John C. Underwood, a federal judge and the body’s president, proposes removing a ban on clergymen serving in the General...
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Cash, June Carter (1929–2003)
June Carter Cash was a country and folk singer and the wife of Johnny Cash. Born in southwestern Virginia, she was the daughter of Maybelle Carter, who with her first cousin Sara Carter and Carter's...
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Carter, Maybelle (1909–1978)
Maybelle Carter was a member of the Carter Family, a trio that helped to pioneer what became known as country music. Born in Scott County, in Southwest Virginia, she grew up playing music and learning...
View ArticleBeazley, Roy C. (1902–1985)
Roy C. Beazley served as director of the University of Virginia Hospital School of Nursing from 1946 until 1969, and was the first woman at the university to be named professor emerita. Born in Orange...
View ArticleLetter from George Washington to Elizabeth Parke Custis (September 14, 1794)
In this letter to his stepgranddaughter, Elizabeth Parke Custis, dated September 14, 1794, George Washington provides advice on marriage.Mon, 12 Dec 2016 13:41:12 EST
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Custis, Eleanor "Nelly" Parke (1779–1852)
Eleanor "Nelly" Parke Custis was the stepgranddaughter of George Washington and important preserver of the first president's legacy. Born in Maryland, she and her brother, George Washington Parke...
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Custis, Elizabeth Parke (1776–1831)
Elizabeth Parke Custis was a social leader and the stepgranddaughter of George Washington. Born in Maryland, she lived with her mother in Alexandria after the death of her father in 1781. When her...
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Custis, Mary Lee Fitzhugh (1788–1853)
Mary Lee Fitzhugh Custis was an Episcopal lay leader whose efforts helped to revive Virginia's Episcopal church early in the nineteenth century. Custis's father, William Fitzhugh, served in the...
View ArticleBarbour, Lucy Johnson (1775–1860)
Lucy Johnson Barbour was the wife of Virginia governor, U.S. senator, secretary of war, and minister to Great Britain James Barbour and, after his death, a women's leader and Whig Party activist. Born...
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Rind, Clementina (d. 1774)
Clementina Rind was a public printer for Virginia and publisher from August 1773 to September 1774 of one of two Virginia Gazettes printedin Williamsburg. Born about 1740, she married the Maryland...
View ArticleLetter from George Washington to Oliver Wolcott Jr. (September 1, 1796)
In this letter to Oliver Wolcott Jr., dated September 1, 1796, President George Washington corresponds with his secretary of the Treasury about the search for his fugitive slave Oney Judge.Thu, 06 Apr...
View ArticleLetter from George Washington to Joseph Whipple (November 28, 1796)
In this letter to Joseph Whipple, dated November 28, 1796, President George Washington corresponds with the customs collector of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, about the search for his fugitive slave Oney...
View ArticleLetter from Joseph Whipple to George Washington (December 22, 1796)
In this letter to President George Washington, dated December 22, 1796, Joseph Whipple, the customs collector of Portsmouth, New Hampshire, discusses his search for the fugitive slave Oney Judge.Fri,...
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Judge, Oney (ca. 1773–1848)
Oney Judge was the enslaved personal attendant of Martha Custis Washington when she ran away from the President's House in Philadelphia in 1796. Born about 1773 at Mount Vernon, Judge began laboring in...
View ArticleLetter from George Washington to Burwell Bassett Jr. (August 11, 1799)
In this letter to Burwell Bassett Jr., dated August 11, 1799, George Washington asks his wife 's nephew for help in retrieving the fugitive slave Oney Judge.Fri, 21 Apr 2017 09:47:34 EST
View ArticleLetter from Thomas Lee to George Washington (June 28, 1796)
In this letter to President George Washington, dated June 28, 1796, Thomas Lee offers news of Washington's fugitive slave Oney Judge.Fri, 21 Apr 2017 13:23:46 EST
View Article"A Slave of George Washington!" by Benjamin Chase, The Liberator (January 1,...
In "A Slave of George Washington!," published in William Lloyd Garrison's abolitionist newspaper the Liberator on January 1, 1847, Benjamin Chase interviews Oney Judge, who ran away from the household...
View ArticleAdvertisement for the Capture of Oney Judge, Philadelphia Gazette (May 24, 1796)
In this advertisement, published on the front page of the Philadelphia Gazette and Universal Daily Advertiser, on May 24, 1796, President George Washington seeks the return of his fugitive slave Oney...
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Blackford, Mary Berkeley Minor (1802–1896)
Mary Berkeley Minor Blackford was an antislavery leader who founded a female auxiliary of the American Colonization Society in Fredericksburg. Born in Fredericksburg, she was unusually well educated by...
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Hinton, Corinna (1835–1887)
Corinna Hinton was an enslaved woman who bore several children with the Richmond slave trader Silas Omohundro and helped him run his business. Little is known of Hinton's early life. By the time she...
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Davis, Ann Banks (1830–1907)
Ann Banks Davis was an enslaved woman who bore several children with the Richmond slave trader Hector Davis. Little is known of Ann Davis's early life. She likely was the daughter of an enslaved woman...
View ArticleAdvertisement for the Capture of Oney Judge, Claypoole's American (May 25, 1796)
In this advertisement, published on page 3 of Claypoole's American Daily Advertiser of Philadelphia, on May 25, 1796, President George Washington seeks the return of his fugitive slave Oney Judge....
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Foster, Kitty (ca. 1790–1863)
Kitty Foster was a free African American woman who owned property just south of the University of Virginia, the site of which has been memorialized by the school. Born enslaved in Albemarle County,...
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Veney, Bethany (ca. 1815–1916)
Bethany Veney was an enslaved woman who, prior to the American Civil War (1861–1865), lived in the Shenandoah Valley and, in 1889, published The Narrative of Bethany Veney, a Slave Woman. Born near...
View ArticleKeckley, Excerpt from Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four...
In chapters 1 through 5 of Behind the Scenes: Or, Thirty Years a Slave and Four Years in the White House,published in 1868, Elizabeth Keckley describes her years in slavery, her freedom, and her...
View ArticleDrumgoold, A Slave Girl's Story by Kate (1898)
In A Slave Girl's Story, published in Brooklyn, New York, in 1898, Kate Drumgoold tells the story of her enslaved life in Virginia and her freedom after the American Civil War (1861–1865).Thu, 22 Feb...
View ArticleWilson, Edith Bolling Galt (1872–1961)
Edith Bolling Galt Wilson married President Woodrow Wilson while he was serving his second term in the White House and served as First Lady from December 18, 1915, until March 4, 1921. When the...
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James, The Lynching of John Henry (1898)
The lynching of John Henry James, an African American man accused of raping a white woman, took place a few miles west of Charlottesville on July 12, 1898. A day earlier, Julia Hotopp reported having...
View Article"Confederate Women Resent Thrust at Lee," Charlottesville Daily Progress...
In "Confederate Women Resent Thrust at Lee," published in the Charlottesville Daily Progress on January 29, 1909, the paper reprints a report from the Richmond Times-Dispatch on a controversy involving...
View ArticleConfederacy, Constitution of The United Daughters of the (1895)
The United Daughters of the Confederacy was formed in 1894 to protect and perpetuate Confederate memory following the American Civil War (1861–1865). At its second meeting in 1895, it produced this...
View ArticleAn Act to amend an Act, entitled, "An Act concerning the emancipation of...
In this act, passed on January 24, 1816, the General Assembly revises its laws governing slavery.Mon, 17 Sep 2018 10:08:32 EST
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Hemings, Sally (1773–1835)
Sally Hemings was an enslaved house servant owned by Thomas Jefferson, who, many historians believe, fathered at least six of Hemings's children. Born in 1773 at a Virginia plantation of John Wayles,...
View ArticleReport from the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy...
In this report from the Virginia Division of the United Daughters of the Confederacy, made to the organization's national convention in Saint Louis, Missouri, in November 1921 and later published, Mary...
View ArticleLetter from Elizabeth (Betsey) McCarty to the Westmoreland County Court...
In this letter to the Westmoreland County Court, dated February 26, 1821, Elizabeth (Betsey) McCarty requests that her stepfather, Richard Henry Stuart, be reinstated as her guardian.Mon, 07 Jan 2019...
View ArticleLetter from Anne McCarty Lee to William B. Lewis (March 11, 1837)
In this letter, dated March 11, 1837, Anne Robinson McCarty Lee writes to William B. Lewis requesting his help after the death of her husband, Henry Lee IV.Mon, 07 Jan 2019 15:16:58 EST
View ArticleKey, Elizabeth (fl. 1655–1660)
Elizabeth Key was a principal in one of the important early court cases that shaped the evolving law of slavery in seventeenth-century Virginia. Born to a mother of African descent and her white owner,...
View ArticleLetter from Kate M. Gordon to Roberta Wellford (January 11, 1916)
In this letter Kate M. Gordon, president of the Southern States Woman Suffrage Conference, writes to Roberta Wellford, a charter member and an officer of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia, about...
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Randolph, Virginia Estelle (1870–1958)
Virginia Estelle Randolph, born of formerly enslaved parents in Richmond, was a pioneering educator, community health advocate, organizational leader, and humanitarian. Educated within the public...
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Otey, Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis (1880–1974)
Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis Otey was an economist, an activist in the Virginia and national suffrage movements, and a political candidate for the Republican and Socialist parties. She earned a...
View ArticleSpeech by Nathaniel H. Claiborne to the U.S. House of Representatives...
In this speech, dated February 18, 1830, Nathaniel H. Claiborne registers his vote against a bill that proposed to provide pensions to the families—including brothers and sisters—of the navy men aboard...
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Lewis, Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne (1851–1946)
Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis was a leader in the Virginia and national woman suffrage movements. Beginning her activist work in her native Lynchburg, in 1910, she founded the city’s Equal Suffrage...
View Article"Interview of Mrs. Fannie Berry" (February 26, 1937)
Fannie Berry, a woman who was born into slavery, tells an interviewer from the Virginia Writers Project about her life on February 26, 1937. Some of her major memories include the rebellions of Nat...
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Paxton, Millie Lawson Bethell (1875–1939)
Millie Lawson Bethell Paxton was a civic leader who worked toward a more inclusive democracy in Roanoke. She worked to redress racial inequality on many fronts as organizer of the city’s first Colored...
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Pidgeon, Mary Elizabeth (1890–1979)
Mary Elizabeth Pidgeon was a woman suffrage activist who worked for change at every level: as a grassroots organizer, a state politics watchdog, and a researcher at a federal agency. She began her...
View Article"A Confession of Faith" (November 1914)
In "A Confession of Faith," published by the Virginia Suffrage News in November 1914, Elizabeth Dabney Langhorne Lewis makes an argument for women's suffrage based on the principles of a representative...
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Meredith, Sophie Gooding Rose (1851–1928)
Sophie Gooding Rose Meredith was a leader in the Virginia woman suffrage movement, cofounding Virginia branches of two national suffrage organizations. Her civic activism began early in the 1900s, when...
View Article"Roanoke News" (November 13, 1920)
In "Roanoke News," published by the Richmond Planet on November 13, 1920, the editors report on the comings and goings of Black Roanoke with particular attention and enthusiasm for the Colored Women's...
View Article"Roanoke Notes" (March 19, 1921)
In "Roanoke News," published by the Richmond Planet on March 19, 1921, the editors report on the comings and goings of Black Roanoke including, Millie Lawson Bethell Paxton's appointment as Truant...
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