The farms around Gretna have more than one story to tell
A USDA county snapshot puts tobacco alongside livestock, dairy and other parts of the agricultural landscape.
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381 results for “Family”
The freight ramp and the flue shop: how Main Street served farm country
Two documented details connect downtown commerce with railroad freight and farm supplies.
Sharswood, part 1: A house bought for family opened a door to history
Fred Miller wanted room for family gatherings. His May 2020 purchase led the Miller family into a history that was local, national, and deeply their own.
Sharswood, part 2: Read the Gothic Revival house—and look beyond it
The 1850s main house is architecturally important, but its design tells only one layer of the property’s history.
Sharswood, part 3: The smaller building is older than the mansion
A sixteen-by-thirty-two-foot structure behind the main house changed uses over time—and preserves rare evidence of enslaved family life.
Sharswood, part 4: Fifty-eight people, twelve dwellings, and a record without names
The 1860 census counted the people held at Sharswood but largely denied them the basic recognition of being recorded by name.
Sharswood, part 5: Sarah Miller carried the family story across emancipation
A photograph, a death certificate, a census entry, and Marian Keyes’s memories brought one post-emancipation life into focus.
Sharswood, part 6: How the records linked David and Violet to the plantation
The breakthrough came from connecting—not guessing across—a death certificate, the 1870 census, and Virginia’s slave birth register.
Sharswood, part 7: The 1866 labor contract—and the limits of the available copy
A courthouse document reportedly names David and Violet after emancipation, but its full terms still need direct inspection before they are quoted or interpreted.
Sharswood, part 8: The burial ground beyond the property line
Uninscribed stones in a wooded area became evidence of lives the formal record had obscured—and a call for careful stewardship.
Sharswood, part 9: What the 60 Minutes report documented
The national broadcast preserved the Miller family’s voices and the evidence trail. Its 2026 update should not be mistaken for a newly filmed investigation.
Sharswood, part 10: From discovery to descendant-led stewardship
The Sharswood Foundation is carrying the family’s discovery into preservation, education, and public memory—work that remains active rather than finished.
Barbara Johns made a school’s unequal conditions impossible to ignore
The Farmville student organizer’s story is about preparation, collective action, and the long work after a walkout.
Juneteenth connects a promise of freedom with the work of enforcing it
The surviving General Order No. 3 helps explain why emancipation has more than one important date.
Gorée asks visitors to connect remembrance with the record
The Senegalese island is a major place of memory for the Atlantic slave trade—and a living community.
Gretna’s 2008 repeat belongs in the town’s football memory
A fourth state title made the Hawks’ success a continuing program story, with each season deserving its own record.
Mabry Mill was a workplace before it became a postcard
The waterwheel opens a story about skill, household labor and the businesses that served mountain neighbors.
Ferrum’s folklife festival made everyday skills worth a public stage
Music, food and working traditions belong in the region’s cultural record.
The windows in a Rosenwald school were part of the lesson
School design reveals a community’s demand for a better place to learn.
Spirituals and gospel share a conversation, but they are not the same category
A listening history should preserve the distinctions inside Black sacred music.
Schoolfield’s business story extended beyond the mill gates
A company village makes employment, housing and everyday commerce part of the same history.
A railway career was never only a job in the locomotive cab
Roanoke’s buildings and collections reveal the many trades behind a train journey.
A kitchen cabin changes the way we tell Virginia’s food history
At Booker T. Washington’s birthplace, cooking belongs to the history of enslavement and family life.
The small shelf label has a history of its own
Unit pricing developed to make differently sized packages easier to compare.
Virginia’s 1869 constitution opened public life—and its gains were contested
Reconstruction belongs in the story of schools, citizenship, and who could speak for a community.
Lucy Addison expanded what a Roanoke classroom could offer
Her educational leadership belongs in the region’s history of opportunity, not only on a school sign.
The Nineteenth Amendment changed the Constitution, but access still had barriers
Women’s voting history needs both the 1920 milestone and the people excluded afterward.
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights was written through debate
Its 1948 history shows why the people choosing the words belong in the story.
At Poplar Forest, archaeology brings the plantation community into view
The retreat’s history includes the lives and labor of enslaved people whose homes were poorly recorded.
The first Galax winners list tells a bigger story than fiddle alone
The 1935 convention record includes song, dance, storytelling and several instruments.