Overview
The Research section offers primary and secondary sources that support further investigation into the topics of African colonization and Black Virginians on both sides of the Atlantic. It includes brief stories of individuals and families who emigrated to Liberia, essays on various relevant topics and sources, papers that project members have presented at the annual Virginia Forum conference, and relevant videos.
The primary source for Virginia Emigrants to Liberia are the Records of the American Colonization Society at the Library of Congress, available via enhanced images from microfilm. The records are voluminous and rich in detail, though un-indexed. Because they include information on surnames, age, family relationships, place of origin, and sometimes enslaver, occupation, literacy, and religion, they can help researchers break through the “brick wall” often encountered when tracing subjects back into the era of slavery. Other sources include the ACS periodical African Repository and local newspapers.
Our dataset includes citations to thousands of original documents, including more than 500 letters to, from, and about Virginia emigrants. At this time, the vast majority of hyperlinked letters concern individuals from the part of Virginia that remained with the Union and became West Virginia. The West Virginia Humanities Council and the Jefferson County Black History Preservation Society funded the project to identify and transcribe these letters from microfilm images that were digitized, enhanced, and made available online at Fold3.com after free registration. Other correspondence will be identified and linked in the database in the future, and we welcome user contributions in this effort.
