Quaker Road Engagement 29 March 1865 S80
This was the first in a series of attempts by Grant’s army to cut Lee’s final supply line -- the South Side Railroad -- in spring 1865. Here at the Lewis farm, Union forces led by Brig. Gen. Joshua L. Chamberlain engaged Confederates under Maj. Gen. Bushrod R. Johnson. After sharp fighting, the Union troops entrenched nearby along the Boydton Plank Road and Johnson withdrew to his lines at White Oak Road. The Union army cut the rail line four days later, after capturing Five Forks on 1 April.

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J.E.B. Stuart at Munson's Hill T39
Following the First Battle of Manassas on 21 July 1861, Col. James Ewell Brown Stuart, commander of the 1st Virginia Cavalry, moved his troopers to Fairfax Court House and then here to Munson’s Hill, the Confederate position closest to the city of Washington. From his camp Stuart watched Union observers ascend in balloons to study him. Stuart built Quaker cannons of logs and marched his men before large campfires to confound the Federals. On 24 September, while still encamped here, he was promoted to the rank of brigadier general.

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Quaker Meeting House L20
In the mid-18th century, members of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) settled in the Lynchburg area, initially worshiping in one another’s houses. According to local tradition, the first meetinghouse was constructed here of logs in 1757 and enlarged in 1763. In 1768 it burned and the next year a frame church was built. It stood until 1792, when construction began on a stone meetinghouse completed in 1798. It deteriorated after 1835 as many Quakers, who opposed slavery, emigrated from Lynchburg and Virginia to free states. The meetinghouse was restored in the 20th century as the Quaker Memorial Presbyterian Church, John Lynch, the founder of Lynchburg, and his mother, Sarah Lynch, are buried in the adjacent cemetery.

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Christiansburg Industrial Institute K-68
In 1866, Captain Charles S. Schaeffer, a Freedman’s Bureau agent, organized a school for blacks on the hill just to the southeast. Charles L. Marshall of Tuskeegee Institute became principal of the school in 1896. Under his guidance and with support from Philadelphia Quakers, a library, dormitories, classrooms, shops, and barns were constructed. Both academic and industrial classes were offered at the institute until 1947 when it became a public high school. In 1966, the institute graduated its last class, and its property was sold at public auction. Department of Conservation and Historic Resources, 1988.

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Pleasants V. Pleasants V43
John Pleasants, Sr., nearby landowner and Quaker, requested in his will that his slaves be freed when each became 30 years old. Pleasants died in 1771, but it was not until 1782 that some of his slaves gained freedom when the Virginia General Assembly approved private manumissions. His son, Robert Pleasants, and a few other heirs freed close to 100 slaves in multiple counties. Robert Pleasants attempted to get all of the family to honor the will’s stipulations, which culminated in 1798 when the Virginia High Court of Chancery heard it as a legal case. Future U.S. Chief Justice John Marshall and John Warden represented Robert Pleasants on behalf of the slaves. In 1799, the court ruled in favor of freeing the slaves. Some of the freed slaves settled nearby on Robert Pleasant’s land to form the Gravely Hill community.

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Jacob House SA63
In 1817 George Winston built the Jacob House nearby, in the development known as Sydney. Winston (1759-1826), a Quaker who built the first Richmond Friends Meeting House at 19th and Cary Streets about 1798, employed a large number of free black apprentices. An important builder here during this period, Winston participated in the construction of the Virginia State Penitentiary. The Jacob House derives its name from John Jacob, an assistant superintendent at the Virginia State Penitentiary who bought the house in 1832. The building was moved to this site from 610 W Cary Street in 1995.

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African American Settlers of the Cheyenne Valley WI383
The Cheyenne Valley near Hillsboro was Wisconsin's largest rural African American settlement in the 19th century. The State's early defiance of the 1850 Fugitive slave Act and the later demise of the slavery system after the Civil War encouraged freed slaves to settle in Wisconsin. Nearly 150 African American settlers, with the assistance of the Quaker religious order, came to Hillsboro, where they successfully farmed. Many settlers became landowners and a few, like Thomas Shivers who was born on a Tennessee plantation, owned large acreages. The African American settlers socialized well with neighboring European immigrants, establishing among the State's first integrated schools, churches and sporting teams. Thomas Shivers' son, Alga Shivers, was a notable builder, designing and constructing many of Vernon County's round barns in the early 20th century. The advent of the automobile, and other elements of change led to the gradual decline of the rural African American population.

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Golansville Quaker Meeting House E110
Pioneers in asserting the right to religious freedom, the Caroline Friends (Quakers) held their first meeting nearby on 12 March 1739 together with their partner, Cedar Creek Friends Meeting of Hanover County. At a meeting on 9 May 1767, members issued a call to their fellow Quakers to end slaveholding, the first such movement in Virginia. The Friend’ testimony against slavery contributed to declining membership as many immigrated west to free states. The Caroline Friends continued to use their meetinghouse, and burying ground until 1853. They then joined Cedar Creek and ultimately became Richmond Friends Meeting.

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Jonathan Dickinson Shipwreck FL215

Three miles to the east on Sept. 23, 1696, the British barkentine Reformation foundered off Jupiter Island. The 24 survivors included a party of Quakers bound from Jamaica to Pennsylvania. Leader of the Quakers was Jonathan Dickinson who described the trials of the group in his book, "God's Protecting Providence", the first account of Indians on the southeast coast. Attacked by Indians and driven northward, the party arrived at St. Augustine in November, 1696.

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Underground Railroad - Buddell Sleeper IN36

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