Codos to those who worked so hard on this project. The database is an excellent resource, and easy to maneuver. It would be nice to see a database on the free blacks that settled in Nova Scotia. I located many Lewis and Bowden settlers (from Virginia), whose communities still exist today. William F. Buckley Senior did a photo archive of the blacks in Nova Scotia. I was able to view the photographs through the Nova Scotia Libraries website. Buckley was certainly a talented photographer and captured the essence of this community. Anita > Date: Tue, 7 Oct 2008 10:33:40 -0400 > From: [log in to unmask] > Subject: VCDH Launches Virginia Emigrants to Liberia Website > To: [log in to unmask] > > [FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE] > > VCDH Announces Official Launch of Virginia Emigrants To Liberia Website > > http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu/liberia > > Charlottesville, Virginia, Oct. 1, 2008: Virginia Emigrants to Liberia, a > new website directed by scholars affiliated with the Virginia Center for > Digital History (VCDH) at the University of Virginia, opens a window into > the lives of free black and enslaved Virginians, the trans-Atlantic world > they inhabited, and the African nation they helped to found. > > Between 1820 and 1865, some 3,700 African Americans left Virginia for > Liberia, the West African settlement founded by the American Colonization > Society (ACS). About one-quarter of these emigrants were free blacks, the > rest newly manumitted slaves, most freed upon the condition of their > voluntary resettlement in the ACS-governed colony (1820-1847) and > independent black republic (1847-present) across the Atlantic. More than two > hundred white Virginians emancipated slaves for emigration. > > Through the Virginia Emigrants to Liberia website > <www.vcdh.virginia.edu/liberia>, officially launched by VCDH on October 1, > researchers can gather census-like information on individual emigrants from > a searchable database, read stories about emigrants and emancipators, and > easily access related online resources. The database enables historians and > genealogists to collect and analyze data not usually available for enslaved > people, such as surnames and family relationships, and connect people to > localities on both continents. > > The website features a variety of resources, the heart of which is a > searchable database of emigrants and emancipators. The Emigrants table is > searchable by first and last name, place of origin in Virginia, ship, > emancipator, and destination in Liberia. It provides detailed shipboard > census information often including full names, family relationships, > occupation and literacy; data from the 1843 Liberian census; and additional > information from ACS and First African Baptist Church (Richmond) records. > The Emancipator table is searchable by surname, county, and year of > emancipation. > > Other resources on the website include ten stories of emigrants and > emancipators, representing a range of experiences. For example, emigrant > Hilary Teage wrote the Liberian Declaration of Independence in 1847 and > Joseph Jenkins Roberts became the world’s first African American president. > Harriet Graves Waring became a reluctant founding mother, and Augustus > Curtis participated in the slave trade (Roberts avowed Curtis was the only > African American who did so) and lived among the Vai people. Patrick Bullock > and his family felt abandoned as they endured illness and starvation. > > Broadly collaborative in design, the Virginia Emigrants to Liberia project > builds on the painstaking research of two leading historians of Virginia > colonization: Dr. Marie Tyler-McGraw, author of the book An African > Republic: Black And White Virginians In The Making Of Liberia (University of > North Carolina Press, 2007), and Dr. Deborah A. Lee, who has researched and > written on women colonizationists, the Underground Railroad, and antislavery > in the mid-Atlantic region. It features as well an illustrated essay by > Harvard University doctoral candidate Dalila Scruggs. Scruggs analyzed > images produced by black settlers and white colonizationists to better > understand underlying cultural beliefs and how they were used to promote the > colonization movement in the antebellum United States. > > The web project was funded by the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and > the database developed in partnership with the Afro-American Historical > Association of Fauquier County. > > VCDH director Scot French hailed the project as a major step toward > expanding public awareness of the Virginia colonization movement’s social, > cultural, and geopolitical dimensions, as well as a research and teaching > tool with great potential for development and expansion. > > "I’m thrilled that Deborah Lee and Marie Tyler-McGraw chose to work with > VCDH on this project. These two scholars, working in traditional archives, > conducted research of enormous significance to the study of slavery, > freedom, race, and nationality on both sides of the Atlantic. Now, through > this unique website, they have made their findings widely accessible to the > public as searchable data, narrated stories, and scholarly essays.” > > Now in its tenth year, the Virginia Center for Digital History is committed > to advancing knowledge through the application of digital technologies to > history and related fields of scholarly inquiry; designing and developing > innovative applications of technology in consultation with historians and > other project partners, and facilitating exchanges among educators with a > shared commitment to transforming how history is taught, learned and > accessed in the Digital Age. > > Contact: > > Scot A. French > Director / Associate Professor > Virginia Center for Digital History > http://www.vcdh.virginia.edu > Alderman Library ~ Taylor Room > P.O. Box 400116 > University of Virginia > Charlottesville, VA 22904-4116 > 434-924-3804 [ phone ] > 434-243-5566 [ fax ] > [log in to unmask] > > ______________________________________ > To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at > http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html _________________________________________________________________ Want to do more with Windows Live? Learn “10 hidden secrets” from Jamie. http://windowslive.com/connect/post/jamiethomson.spaces.live.com-Blog-cns!550F681DAD532637!5295.entry?ocid=TXT_TAGLM_WL_domore_092008 ______________________________________ To subscribe, change options, or unsubscribe please see the instructions at http://listlva.lib.va.us/archives/va-hist.html