We get a fair amount of reader feedback here at Encyclopedia Virginia. For instance, we are still hearing about our entry on the United Daughters of the Confederacy and we recently received a note from a reader who found on our site “Easily the best article on Mary Bowser I’ve come across.” There are a […]
We just dropped season 3 of our podcast Not Even Past. Each episode crafts a short narrative drawn from the encyclopedia, pairing it with an interview with someone connected to the story in some interesting way. This season, we examined the lives of Christopher McPherson, Angela, John Mitchell Jr., Henry Martin, Anne Spencer, and Bethany […]
In Season 3, Episode 6, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe travels to 1313 Pierce Street, the Lynchburg home of Anne Spencer, a poet, gardener, and luminary of the Harlem Renaissance. What can her home tell us about this accomplished and sometimes eccentric woman? Wolfe and producer Miranda Bennett also sit down with Spencer’s […]
In Season 3, Episode 5, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe marvels at the power of Bethany Veney‘s writing, which tells the story of her life in slavery, the time she foiled an attempt to sell her, and her journey to freedom. Wolfe and producer Miranda Bennett also talk to Jobie Hill, an architectural […]
In Season 3, Episode 4, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe considers the life of Henry Martin, a formerly enslaved man who for years worked as a janitor at the University of Virginia. Something of a mascot, something of a joke—that’s how the community treated him but underneath that was a black man just […]
In Season 3, Episode 3, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe admires the African American newspaperman John Mitchell Jr. Known as the Fighting Editor, Mitchell was willing to strap on a pair of Smith & Wesson revolvers and risk his own death in the fight against lynching. His life ended on a sad note, […]
In Season 3, Episode 1, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe introduces us to Christopher McPherson, a free black man who knew Jefferson, dined with Madison, and worked for George Wythe. He also predicted the end of the world. Wolfe and producer Miranda Bennett also interview Deborah Murdock who owns properties where McPherson once […]
In Season 3, Episode 2, of Not Even Past, host Brendan Wolfe examines the life of Angela, one of the first twenty Africans to arrive at Jamestown in 1619. On the 400th anniversary of that propitious moment in Virginia history, Historic Jamestowne is looking in earnest for signs of Angela and her fellow Africans. Wolfe […]
Last night may have been a first in the history of Encyclopedia Virginia: our resource appeared onscreen during one of the late-night shows. Trevor Noah of the Daily Show quoted from our entry on indentured servants, highlighting the section in a graphic, with our new logo and everything—all as part of a clip that skewered Governor Ralph […]
This blog post was written by Miranda Bennett, assistant editor of Encyclopedia Virginia. John Little, who escaped to Canada from bondage in Tennessee, told an interviewer, “Tisn’t he who has stood and looked on, that can tell you what slavery is,—’tis he who has endured.” This seems an obvious observation and yet it’s something we […]
