The Fall 2013 issue of the online historical journal Common Place has two articles in it that will interest some Va-Hist subscribers.

One is by Adam Shprintzen describing that new online encyclopedia of all things George Washington that is being compiled at Mount Vernon.

The other is by Marie Tyler-McGraw and Dwight T. Pitcaithley, "The Lemmon Slave Case: Courtroom Drama, Constitutional Crisis, and the Southern Quest to Nationalize Slavery," concerning a New York court case that arose when a white Virginia family tried to pass through New York early in the 1850s en route to New Orleans, and the enslaved people they carried with them escaped and claimed freedom under New York law. The General Assembly of Virginia hired attorneys to defend the rights of the slave owners with the apparent hope of carrying the case to the Supreme Court of the United States. The case never made it all the way, but it could have become as important as, or even more important than, the Dred Scott case of 1857.

To see the table of contents of Common Place and also for back issues, please go to www.common-place.org<http://www.common-place.org>

Brent Tarter
The Library of Virginia
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Please visit the Library of Virginia's Web site at http://www.lva.virginia.gov

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