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Start Over Subjects African Americans -- History

Hidden History: The Black Experience in the Roanoke Valley Cassette Tapes and Transcripts 2.5 Cubic Feet 10 boxes

This oral history project was an agreement between University Libraries and The Harrison Museum of African American Culture. It contians oral history interviews with forty African American people from the Roanoke Valley. The interviews are mostly biographical in nature.
  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Independent Order of St. Luke Records 1.1 Cubic Feet 3 boxes

Independent Order of St. Luke (Blacksburg, Va.)
The bulk of the materials in the Independent Order of St. Luke Records, a social-welfare organization for African Americans, consist of handbooks, correspondence, receipts, programs, membership records, annual reports, and assessment reports of the Order, collected primarily from members in Blacksburg, Virginia. Also includes the minutes (1920-1938) of the Blacksburg chapters of the Busy Bee and Maggie L. Walker (Secretary of the Independent Order of St. Luke) Circles.
  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Isle of Wight County (Va.) Deeds, 1741-1905

Isle of Wight County (Va.) Circuit Court

Isle of Wight County (Va.) Deeds, 1741-1905 consist of deeds of bargain and sale, deeds of gift, mortgages, and deeds of trust. On presentation to the court, deeds were proved and recorded. If the deed was not witnessed, the grantor acknowledged the deed in open court. A few of the deeds include plats. Except for a few years early in the eighteenth century, slaves in Virginia were considered personal property and consequently were not usually sold by deed. However, they were often transferred in deeds of gift or were the property listed in mortgages and deeds of trust.

  1. Library of Virginia

Jack Foster Letter 0.1 Cubic Feet 1 folder

Foster, Jack
The collection includes a letter from Jack Foster, a formerly enslaved person and body servant in the 36th Virginia Infantry, to Confederate General John McCausland, reminiscing about the Battle of Cloyd's Mountain and his time in camp service during the American Civil War.
  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

Jeffrey T. Wilson Diaries 0.2 Cubic Feet 1 box

Wilson, Jeffrey Thomas, 1843-1929
The collection consists of two diaries (1913, 1928) written by Jeffrey T. Wilson (1843-1929). Wilson was a former enslaved person who spent most of his life in and around Portsmouth and Norfolk, Virginia. He worked as a bailiff in the Norfolk courts after leaving the U. S. Navy and wrote a column, "Colored Notes," for The Portsmouth Star from 1924 until his death in 1929. He outlived four wives and had at least twelve children. Wilson's diaries include entries on a range of topics from local news and politics, race issues in the South, and much of his personal history. The 1913 diary contains extra pages on which Wilson recorded events from that date in the past (i.e. "Fifty one years ago today...").
  1. Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University

King George County (Va.), 1836-1909

King George County (Va.) Circuit Court

King George County (Va.) Deeds, 1836-1909 consist of deeds of bargain and sale, deeds of gift, mortgages, and deeds of trust. On presentation to the court, deeds were proved and recorded. If the deed was not witnessed, the grantor acknowledged the deed in open court. A few of the deeds include plats. Except for a few years early in the eighteenth century, slaves in Virginia were considered personal property and consequently were not usually sold by deed. However, they were often transferred in deeds of gift or were the property listed in mortgages and deeds of trust.

  1. Library of Virginia

Lancaster County (Va.) Criminal Court Records, circa 1787-1931

Lancaster County (Va.) Circuit Court

Lancaster County (Va.) Criminal Court Records, circa 1787-1931 are criminal court cases and consist primarily of warrants, summons, indictments, and verdicts handed down by grand juries and other legal authorities in order to prosecute individuals who violated the penal code. These offenses ranged in severity from murder, rape, assault and battery, and larceny to tax evasion and slander. Criminal offenders and victims who appear in cases prior to the abolition of slavery in Virginia in 1865 included both free and enslaved persons.

  1. Library of Virginia

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ARVAS is an aggregator of archival resources. ARVAS does not have control of the descriptive language used in our members’ finding aids.

Finding aids may contain historical terms and phrases, reflecting the shared attitudes and values of the community from which they were collected, but are offensive to modern readers. These include demeaning and dehumanizing references to race, ethnicity, and nationality; enslaved or free status; physical or mental ability; religion; sex; and sexual orientation and gender identity.

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