The Negro in Virginia

The illustrated endpapers of The Negro in Virginia (1940) include a numbered list, at left, keyed to places in the state where African Americans played a critical role in history and industry. The map contains images of historical events such as the arrival in Virginia of the first slave ship, Nat Turner's Rebellion, John Brown's Raid, and the Battle of the Crater. It also depicts African Americans at work in the fields and in the coal mines, and climbing over the western mountains in search of freedom. The heroism of Gilbert Hunt, an enslaved blacksmith who, in 1811, rescued victims of a theater fire in Richmond, is highlighted, as are the African American institutions of higher learning in the state.