Frontispiece of From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol

The U.S. Capitol rises above a scene of Virginia plantation life in this frontispiece illustration from John Mercer Langston's autobiography, From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol; or, The First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from the Old Dominion (1894). Langston was born free, the son of a white planter, Ralph Quarles, and his enslaved mistress, Lucy Jane Langston. He later served as Virginia's first African American member of Congress (1890–1891).

Citation: From the Virginia Plantation to the National Capitol; or, The First and Only Negro Representative in Congress from the Old Dominion. E185.97 .L27 1894. Special Collections, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, Va.