About

Suggested Readings

Berry, Daina Ramey. The Price for Their Pound of Flesh: The Value of the Enslaved, from Womb to Grave, in the Building of a Nation. United States: Random House Inc., 2018.

Campbell, Benjamin P. Richmond’s Unhealed History. Richmond, VA: Brandylane Publishers, 2012.

Downs, Jim. Sick from Freedom: African-American Illness and Suffering During the Civil War and Reconstruction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.

Leveen, Lois. The Secrets of Mary Bowser. New York: HarperLuxe, 2012.

Richardson, Selden, and Maurice Duke. Built by Blacks: African American Architecture and Neighborhoods in Richmond. History Press, 2008.

Takagi, Midori. “Rearing Wolves to Our Own Destruction”: Slavery in Richmond, Virginia, 1782-1865. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1999.

Varon, Elizabeth R. Southern Lady, Yankee Spy: The True Story of Elizabeth Van Lew, a Union Agent in the Heart of the Confederacy. Oxford University Press; 1 edition, 2005.

Wilkins, B. H. War Boy: a True Story of the Civil War and Re-Construction Days. Tullahoma, TN: Wilson Bros. Print. Co., 1990.

The African American History Project (AAHP) at Richmond Hill is also known as The Judy Project, named for a woman enslaved at the Adams-Taylor house from 1860-1865. The project began in August 2019 when Pam Smith joined the residential community to serve as the new coordinator of the Micah Initiative. Smith, a historian and genealogist, became deeply interested in what happened to both enslaved and free black people who lived and labored on the property from the 1740s through the 1980s. In her spare time, she began archival research at the Library of Virginia and at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture to unearth their lives and she has made several presentations of her preliminary findings to the Richmond Hill staff, residents and Council. In January 2020, as part of Richmond Hill’s outreach to the community, Pam also conducted a genealogy workshop on tracing enslaved ancestors designed for the public.

To augment the archival research, Richmond Hill hired Jobie Hill, Historic Preservation Architect and founder of Saving Slave Houses and consultant to Monticello and Montpelier on their slave houses, to visit Richmond Hill. In December 2019, Hill investigated a particular structure located in the northeast corner of Richmond Hill’s garden. The remnant building has been used as a tool shed for some time, though there has often been a looming question – was this structure once a slave house? Based on the information available to her at the time, Jobie Hill made a preliminary determination that the structure, which was significantly modified after slavery ended, is a heavily altered slave house. She made this determination based in part on the one- time existence of a fireplace, which indicates living space (enslaved people typically lived where they worked), and on information from historic maps, among other considerations. Richmond Hill’s long-time gardener, Heather Watt, had reported finding artifacts as well as a buried decoratively bonded brick pavement just north of the structure. Hill recommended archaeology to learn more.

In mid-January 2020, archeologists from the Virginia Department of Historic Resources (DHR), Cultural Resource Analysts (CRA) and the Jamestown Rediscovery Project visited the Richmond Hill slave house. Historic cultural materials were observed on the ground surface surrounding the slave house. Further, “an exploratory ground penetrating radar survey identified subsurface cultural features both within and around the building” according to the report of Tim Roberts of CRA and Mike Clem from DHR, co-directors of the archaeology project. Phase I shovel tests began in mid-May 2020 and this process was broadcast live on Facebook to an enthusiastic audience.

Richmond Hill has supported the archival research and architectural and archaeological assessments with programming designed to educate and expand awareness of the African American history at Richmond Hill. With generous support from the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH), an educational series called Unearthing Buried Stories began in February 2020. In recognition of Black History Month, this series began with a panel, carried live on Facebook, that featured experts Ana Edwards, Lauranett Lee, Brian Palmer, Jobie Hill and Tim Roberts. The panel ranked high for Richmond Hill in Facebook page views, an indication of strong audience interest in the black history associated with the Richmond Hill property and with the East End of Richmond. Also at Richmond Hill in May 2020, Lois Leveen, historian and author of The Secrets of Mary Bowser, presented (via Zoom) the intriguing story of this enslaved young woman who lived next door to Richmond Hill in the home of Elizabeth Van Lew. During the Civil War, Mary Bowser Richards Denman acted at a spy for the Union. Able to infiltrate Confederate President Jefferson Davis’ White House, she passed essential information to Union General Ulysses Grant.

There is much to learn from putting the story of the Richmond Hill property, a noteworthy and sacred space at the heart of the origins if Richmond, in the context of neighborhood, regional and national history. Our next steps include continuing archival research and archaeology and a re-evaluation of the slave house based on the archaeological findings.

Project Goals

The Judy Project is a part of Richmond Hill’s Koinonia School of Race & Justice. It aims to

1. Help rewrite Richmond Hill’s and the city of Richmond’s historical narratives by unearthing buried stories about the people who were once enslaved and who worked after slavery ended at Richmond Hill, located in the oldest neighborhood of the city.
2. Preserve and interpret historically significant features, structures and artifacts at Richmond Hill that help to tell the story. Identify and memorialize the people once enslaved on the property.
3. Use genealogical and outreach methods to identify African Americans who might have genealogical ties to this land and invite them to be part of a descendant community.
4. Inspire young people, especially those in the Armstrong Leadership Program at Richmond Hill, to cultivate an interest in history through truth-telling and discover the roots of social injustices that still persist.
5. Promote inclusion of the African American story at Richmond Hill in Richmond Public Schools’ new “Real Richmond” curriculum.
6. Encourage family history research as a means of furthering Richmond Hill’s mission that includes racial reconciliation and healing.
7. Engage people like you in this ongoing project by commenting on our new site, thejudyproject.blog, and by assisting us in locating members of the descendant community – relatives of those once enslaved by the former owners of the land on which Richmond Hill now sits.