Dear colleagues:

The following announcement has been issued by the Virginia Center for
Digital History at the University of Virginia.  Although it is unlikely that
many of us will be able to attend the event announced, many more of us can
now take advantage of the splendid new Web site that it celebrates.

-- Jurretta Heckscher


The Virginia Center for Digital History invites you to attend a
launch/presentation of the new VCDH website

Virginia Emigrants to Liberia
http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/liberia 

with historians/project directors Marie Tyler-McGraw and Deborah Lee

Wednesday, Oct. 1
4:00 - 5:30
Byrd/Morris Seminar Rooms (318/318A)
David and Mary Harrison Institute for American History, Literature, and Culture

Between 1820 and 1865, under the auspices of the American Colonization
Society, more than 3,700 African-Americans from Virginia emigrated to
Liberia. Some went eagerly, others left reluctantly in exchange for their
freedom. Some prospered; many perished. In 1847 they helped establish the
first African republic.

In this website, Marie Tyler-McGraw and Deborah Lee have shared decades of
research into the lives of the emigrants and emancipators featuring a
searchable database, stories of emigrants' experiences, and related primary
and secondary resources. These  materials illuminate the lives of free and
enslaved Virginians and facilitate further research.

Marie Tyler-McGraw is the author of An African Republic: Black and White
Virginians in the Making of Liberia (University of North Carolina Press,
2007). Copies of the book will be available for sale and signing, thanks to
cosponsorship from the University of Virginia Bookstore.

Funding for this project was provided by the Virginia Foundation for the
Humanities.

----
The Virginia Center for Digital History
University of Virginia

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