People to Know:

He served as a sailor on board Fielding Lewis' ship, The Dragon, which patrolled the Rappahannock River and parts of the Chesapeake Bay during the Revolutionary War. The Dragon was built in Fredericksburg in 1777. She had the distinction of having more African-Americans serve on her than any other ship during that time period. John DeBaptiste, a native of St. Kitts, served on The Dragon which later saw action in the Chesapeake Bay. He was later prominent in local business, owning much property and running the ferry at Falmouth. He is buried in the Falmouth Cemetery. His son, George DeBaptiste, later served in the War of 1812.
Source: A Different Story

This Anglican priest and his son, also named James, began a school to educate Fredericksburg slaves in 1765. They were supported by an English missionary association, the Associates of Dr. Thomas Bray. Fielding Lewis, George Washington's brother-in-law, served as an administrator until the school closed in 1770 due to a lack of attendance. Fielding Lewis complained that the plantation owners were not willing to let their slaves spend time in school, although both priests did endorse it in their sermons. Blacks continued to be taught in Sunday schools or other private schools until state law forbade it in 1831.
Source: A Different Story

George Boxley, a white storekeeper, lived in Spotsylvania near Orange County. He tried to coordinate a local slave uprising on March 6, 1815. He said he had received a "heaven-sent" command to free the slaves. His plan was for slaves from Orange, Spotsylvania, and Louisa counties to meet at his home with horses, guns, swords and clubs with which they would attack and take over Fredericksburg and Richmond. Lucy, a slave, reported the plan to her owner, Ptolemy Powell, who informed a magistrate. At least six slaves were executed and many others were arrested. Boxley was able to escape from the Spotsylvania County Jail when his wife brought him a file, which he used to cut his chains. A thousand dollars reward was offered for Boxley, but he was never caught.
Source: A Different Story

The grandson of John DeBaptiste was born in Fredericksburg about 1815 and was active in the Underground Railroad. He first helped slaves to escape when working as a teenager in Richmond. He moved to Indiana in 1838 where he continued to help escaping slaves. He moved to Michigan where he continued his activities and corresponded with the abolitionist John Brown and Frederick Douglass. During the Civil War, DeBaptiste helped raise the troops for the Michigan black regiment in the Civil War and served as one of its sutlers. Later he became a wealthy businessman and president of the Detroit Urban League where he helped to integrate the schools. He died February 22, 1875.
Source: A Different Story and American National Biography Online

Richard DeBaptiste was born in Fredericksburg, November 11, 1831, the son of William and Eliza DeBaptiste. He was taught at home by his father, and later by a Scots-Irishman, although education of blacks was illegal in the city at the time. His family was wealthy, and they later moved to Michigan where he was able to study openly. His first teacher in Michigan was a Quaker who died in prison from helping slaves to escape. Richard DeBaptiste became a teacher and an ordained Baptist minister in Ohio and rose to prominence in the church.
Source: Men of Mark: Eminent, Progressive and Rising

In February 1837, Congressman John Quincy Adams was presented a petition by nine black women from Fredericksburg requesting the abolition of slavery. The petition was presented by Rachael Steers, Susan Loushing and 7 other black women of Fredericksburg. Local historians surmise that they were slaves because they were not listed as free blacks on the Fredericksburg census, and Susan Loushing requested secrecy in the petition.
Source: A Different Story

Moncure Daniel Conway was born in Stafford, Virginia in 1832 into a powerful slave-holding family. He attended college in Pennsylvania and studied for the Unitarian ministry at Harvard. He developed a reputation as a crusading abolitonist, and, after encouragement by Ralph Waldo Emerson, elected to pursue his course as "a natural radical". In the midst of the Civil War, he resettled in Ohio thirty-three slaves who had escaped from his father's plantation. His sister and mother had moved to Pennsylvania and were in sympathy with the Union. His father and two brothers remained firmly aligned with the Confederacy. Conway chose this time to emigrate. He lived in London for much of his life and acted as literary agent for Louisa May Alcott, Mark Twain, and Walt Whitman. His own writings were numerous, and many are owned by the Central Rappahannock Regional Library.
Source: Biography Resource Center Online

Chatham, now a National Park Service property, was the home of Hannah Coalter who owned more than 90 slaves. When she died in 1857, her will gave her slaves the choice of becoming free and migrating to Liberia or the North, or remaining slaves and choosing one of her relatives to live with. The will was considered void because blacks were not considered to be people, and therefore had no freedom of choice. The slaves of Chatham were not freed until the Civil War.
Source: A Different Story

Jason C. Grant was born in Canada on January 9, 1861. Grant's father was a runaway slave from Kentucky who refused to submit to whipping, so he stole a horse, wrote himself a pass, and crossed the border into Canada. His son, Jason Grant, was well-educated. While he was working as a waiter at Saratoga Springs, NY, Jason Grant met Joseph Russell, a teacher from Fredericksburg, who persuaded him to try teaching in the Fredericksburg area. Grant taught in country schools around Fredericksburg and in the city. He became the principal of the Fredericksburg Colored School. He retired in 1924 after 42 years of teaching. His children became educators at Howard University.
Both Walker and Grant were leaders in a group who established the Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute, the first high school for blacks in the area opened in 1905. This school was also known as the Mayfield High School. Eventually it was combined with the elementary school to become Walker-Grant School.

Joseph Walker was born a slave in Spotsylvania County on December 17, 1854. After the Civil War, he worked hard and was able to buy 10 acres of land for his mother, a midwife in Spotsylvania. For a long time he worked as a sexton at St. George's Episcopal Church, the Fredericksburg National Bank, and the black public school. He was never formally educated himself, but was self-taught and highly regarded in the community. He worked for the betterment of conditions through local political and fraternal organizations. Joseph Walker was one of the leaders of a group who established the Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute, the first high school for area blacks that opened in 1905. Later it became known as the Mayfield High School, and it was ultimately combined with the black elementary school to become Walker-Grant School, named in his honor.
Source: A Different Story

H. H. Poole was born near Stafford Court House. He graduated from Virginia State College and taught in Maryland and Virginia, including Stafford County . Poole was supervisor of the black schools in Stafford and King George Counties for 1930 to 1953 and then became the principal of a county school in Berea. H. H. Poole Middle School in Stafford County is named for him. H. H. Poole died April 21, 1962.
Source: A Different Story

The first black officer to be buried in the Fredericksburg National Cemetery was Urbane Bass, a Fredericksburg doctor who was a graduate of Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute. He was also the area's first black physician. Bass moved to Fredericksburg about 1909. In 1911 he and Warren W. Lee opened the Commerce Street Pharmacy on William Street, then called Commerce Street, catering to a predominantly black clientele. In 1917, he volunteered for service in World War I. Dr. Bass was treating the wounded on the firing line in France in 1918 when he was struck in both legs by shrapnel, severely injuring him. He died of his wounds before he could be moved to a hospital. He was posthumously awarded a Distinguished Service Cross. Shiloh New Site Baptist Church, located on Princess Anne Street, has a memorial window created in his honor. Later an association would be started in his name to bring more hospital services to the black community.
Source: A Different Story

John J. Wright was born in Spotsylvania in 1863 on Blanton's Farm at Massaponax. He attended Courtland School Number 4 on Rt. 632 and later the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, now Virginia State College. He earned money for college by working as a waiter in Atlantic City and growing cucumbers to sell to the pickle factory in Fredericksburg. After he graduated from college in 1894, he came back to teach at the same school he attended in Spotsylvania. As a teacher, Wright stressed self-reliance and self-discipline. He loved reading, and would often churn butter with one hand and turn pages with the other. Wright was a prosperous businessman and owned over 200 acres in Spotsylvania and 130 acres in Caroline County. Wright was one of several who rode about the countryside encouraging blacks to register to vote despite the difficulties of the Jim Crow laws. John J. Wright Middle School in Spotsylvania County is named for him.
Source: A Different Story

W. L. Harris was born December 25, 1888 in Essex County, Virginia. When he was seventeen, he entered the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute in Petersburg. He taught school in Hanover and Essex counties and in Charlottesville. In 1915 he enrolled in the dental school of Howard University in Washington, D.C. and graduated in 1918. He came to Fredericksburg with a horse-drawn dentist shop and became active in the black community, acting as club leader for the Young Men's Club. He owned several businesses, and began a local chapter of the NAACP. Harris Street in Mayfield is named for him.
Source: A Different Story

James Farmer

This nationally known civil rights activist was born in Texas on January 20, 1920 and became known as one of the "Big Four" of the civil rights era. He founded the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) in 1942. He believed in non-violent protests to end segregation. Farmer was the instigator of the early sit-ins and organized the Freedom Rides of 1961, which led to the desegregation of interstate buses and bus terminals. Later he was involved with literacy efforts and affirmative action programs. He received the American Humanist Award in 1969 and the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1998. His last years were spent as a history professor at Mary Washington College where he was a revered lecturer. He died in Fredericksburg on July 9, 1999.
Source: Biography Resource Center Online

Gladys Poles Todd

Mrs. Todd worked as a teacher in Fredericksburg at Walker-Grant school before integration and became active in the N.A.A.C.P. to support its membership and Freedom Fund drives. She worked in the early 60's as director of the Fredericksburg's Youth Canteen. She served as the adult advisor for the Youth Council of the NAACP and helped organize the sit-ins at local lunch counters in June and July of 1960. She has given her account of those times in chapter 17 of A Different Story. Her husband Clarence Todd, also a notable political leader, organized "Shades of Soul," a drama, dance, and music group for black youth which later became known as Harambee 360. Their daughter, Gaye Adegbalola, continued to support the group and later went on to become a nationally recognized blues musician.

Dr. Philip Wyatt

Dr. Wyatt came to Fredericksburg to practice dentistry in the 1930's He was president of the adult branch of the local N.A.A.C.P. branch during the turbulent 1960s and was a member of the Fredericksburg Biracial Commission. He also served as president of the Virginia State NAACP. He wrote chapter 16 of A Different Story which talks about the reality of segregated Fredericksburg in the first half of the twentieth century.

Johnny P. Johnson

This well-loved watercolor artist, teacher, and community leader moved to Fredericksburg in 1959. He was the first black faculty member at Mary Washington College. During the tensions of the 1960s, he served as a primary adult advisor to the Young Men's Association, a political group of young black men. His other awards include State Teacher of the Year (1977) and the Black Image Award for his art both in Fredericksburg and in Frejus, France in 2000. He taught art at James Monroe High School and Germanna Community College for over 30 years.

Lawrence Davies

The pastor of Shiloh Old Site Baptist Church, Lawrence A. Davies, became the first black mayor of Fredericksburg in 1976. His chapter in A Different Story discusses the political issues of the times including education and fair housing. In the 1960s, he served on the Biracial Commission to address segregation issues. Lawrence Davies was also the first black member of city council, elected in 1966.

Ruth Coder Fitzgerald

A graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism, Ruth Fitzgerald served in the Peace Corps in the Republic of the Philippines with her husband, Barry, a free lance photographer. She has worked in various Fredericksburg community activities including an area legal aid program and the Ann Hamrick Community House. She is the author of A Different Story: A Black History of Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Spotsylvania, Virginia.

Places to Know:

Chatham

Chatham, which now belongs to the National Park Service, was the site of a rebellion in January 1805. Some of the estate's slaves refused to return to work after the Christmas holidays. Several persons were killed.

The Colored School of Fredericksburg

Legal schooling started immediately after the Civil War. In 1865 more than 100 black children were learning to read in a new school begun by the American Tract Society of New York and the Baptist Home Mission Society. Other schools were started by the Freedmen's Bureau. In 1865, the attendance of Virginia blacks enrolled in schools averaged 82 percent. Sunday schools gave basic education as well as religious training to pupils who could not attend week day classes. By February 1867, 280 students were enrolled in the Fredericksburg Shiloh Church School, as the day school was called. Average daily attendance was 200 and included 60 pupils over the age of 16.

Free Alley

At the intersection of George Street with Barton and Liberty Street, on the south side of George Street is Free Alley, a path leading south where slaves could walk freely to town without having to obtain a pass. Generally, slaves walking in town had to have a pass written by a responsible person or they could be arrested. The path is still used as a shortcut to Hanover Street. In antebellum days, the path led downtown.

Liberty Town

The area that includes present day Liberty, Barton, and George streets was once known as Liberty Town. Before the Civil War, many free blacks rented homes here.

Mayfield

The Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute opened in the basement of Shiloh New Site Baptist Church in 1905. For many years, it was the only high school in the area for black students. In 1906, the board of trustees purchased Moorefield, a large farmhouse and land, to be used for the school. The trustees renamed the property Mayfield. Mayfield began as a private school with much of its funding coming from church groups. During the Depression, private community support became limited, and in 1938 the City of Fredericksburg took the Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute into the city school system. More houses were built around the Mayfield School.

Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute served black students throughout the area and was located just outside the city limits. Boarding students came to Mayfield from the surrounding counties to attend the school, which had a strong religious atmosphere early on. Mathematics, English, history, music, geography, literature, and Greek were among the subjects taught, as the two major courses of study were for teachers or the college-bound.

The National Bank of Fredericksburg

The Freedman's Bureau had offices in what is now the National Bank of Fredericksburg's Princess Anne Street office after the Civil War. Lincoln addressed troops and residents from its steps on April 22, 1862.

Shiloh Cemetery

Old Maury School stands where the potter's field and the Colored Cemetery were located. When the school was built here in the 1920's, many bodies were moved to Shiloh Cemetery at Littlepage Street and Monument Avenue.