Isle of Wight County Museum Smithfield, Virginia USA
Smithfield, Virginia USA
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​The African-American Experience in Isle of Wight County
This online exhibit highlights historical records as well as notable individuals and groups
​with photographs and items from the museum's collection.


To augment the museum's collection with your photographs, memories and documents, contact the museum
​for an appointment to help preserve and interpret this important element of our county's history.



Picture
Africans arriving at Jamestown, 1619
Public domain via Wikimedia Commons
Picture
Willis Atkins, left, was known to be the "strongest
man in Isle of Wight County." Circa 1950s.
Picture
Georgie Davis Tyler
Retired from Isle of Wight County Schools in 1945

Recorded African-American history in English North America dates to August 1619 when the first Africans were involuntarily brought to the shores of Hampton Roads.

In 1623, Isle of Wight County, then Warraskoyack Shire, documents its first four Africans at Bennett's Welcome, the plantation belonging to Edward Bennett. 

The Emancipation Act was passed in Virginia in 1782. It allowed for the freeing of slaves by an owner either through a will at the owner’s death or while an owner was alive through a deed of manumission.
 
Many slaves were freed by their owners as the result of this law. William Scott of Windsor, most likely a Quaker, freed 24 of his slaves the following year - on March 7, 1783. His neighbor Matthew Jordan freed four of his slaves on the same day.
 
The first recorded black property owner in Isle of Wight County was Peter Beacock. In 1772, he purchased 50 acres of land from Joseph and Anne Goodrich.
 
Timothy Tynes’ will of 1802, freed 62 of his slaves. It additionally left them livestock and a combined total of 4,750 acres of land, £900 and farm equipment. These families flourished, building homesteads, farming and working the water in the community. Today, there are many descendants of the Tynes families in Isle of Wight County.
 
The U.S. Census showed that Isle of Wight County had 4,272 slaves in 1830. Taxed the same as livestock, a slave’s value was based on gender.
 
By 1860, there were 1,370 free blacks living in Isle of Wight County. Many who owned property and ran businesses were lumbermen, farmers or watermen.

When the Civil War came to Isle of Wight County, the population consisted of both free and enslaved people. 
The Confederate Army constructed a fort near Harden’s Bluff, across the James River from Mulberry Point, to fire upon Union vessels. The Confederate Army rented slave labor and hired free black laborers. Records of payment show that these men worked for 50 cents a day.

In May 1861, Major General Benjamin Butler decreed that any male slave arriving at Fort Monroe would be considered contraband of war and not returned to his owner. As the war continued, hundreds of men, women and children escaped to Fort Monroe. In 1863, a unit of Colored Troops was assembled from the many contrabands living at the fort. The 36th Infantry United States Colored Troops was made up of mostly former slaves - including 11 from Isle of Wight County. 

​On Sept. 1, 1864, it was documented that several free blacks traveled from Fortress Monroe to sail to Smithfield for the purpose of collecting their families, and on July 4, 1865, a boat of former slaves traveled from Fortress Monroe to the foot of South Church Street to celebrate Independence Day. 

Below are items and information from the museum's collection and from local residents pertaining to the African-American experience in Isle of Wight County. (Some images are protected for copyright purposes.)

EARLY HISTORY

Virginia Gazette
July 21, 1738

Thomas Bell alas Francis Partridge Hutchinson, who was committed to the Isle of Wight County Goal, for felony, made his escape from John Rodway the constable of the county...He is a middle-siz'd man, with his own hair, and has on a brown colour'd broad-cloth coat.

​Virginia Gazette
October 10, 1777

Advertisement searching for the owners of James Parker's estate. A slave, whose name was Doctor, was committed to the jail because the original owner was deceased and because the gentleman who hired him, a Mr. Wilcox, was done with his employment.

Josiah Parker
1751-1810

Resident of Isle of Wight County and member of U.S. House of Representatives, First to Sixth Congresses. First Congressman to formally and verbally oppose the practice of slavery.

Will, Timothy Tynes
​1806

Freed 62 of his slaves leaving them livestock, land and farm equipment.

Tax Receipt, Andrew Woodley
1813

Andrew Woodley, past and future county sheriff, installed chain in the Pagan River during the War of 1812. This bill to the state requests reimbursement for his expenses: $8 for ox chain and $11.86 for work performed by "negroes."

Tax Receipts, William & Eliza Campbell
1837-1846

Documenting slave ownership.

Tax Receipts, James Scott & Wife
1862

Documenting slave ownership with categories for age and "free negroes."

Artifacts, Lawne's Point Free Black Homestead
19th Century

Common household goods from a house site in Lawne’s Point fits with the description of the location of one of Tynes’ former slaves.

Construction of Fort Huger
​1861

Payrolls by Acting Paymaster James Maurice: one for slaves and one for "sundry persons," hired by the Confederate Engineering Department. 

36th Infantry United States Colored Troops 
1862-1866

Soldiers in Companies E, F, I and K from Smithfield and Isle of Wight County.

Non-Payment, Fort Huger
​December 1861

​County Commissioner of Revenue B.J. Gray sent a letter to Richmond on behalf of free black laborers who were not paid for their work.

Randall Booth Saves the Courthouse Records
​1862

Randall Booth, slave of Clerk of Circuit Court Nathaniel P. Young, removed records from the courthouse to safeguard them during the Civil War. After the war, he was given his freedom and a position as caretaker of the courthouse.

U.S. Army
Unknown Soldier
World War I

Nurse, Caregiver
Aunt Allie
Nurse at Oak Level. Died in 1880.

Isle of Wight County
Clerk's Office Workers
Near the pump, 1910

AGRICULTURE, BUSINESS & INDUSTRY

Agriculture
Farming & Processing
Agriculture was - and still is - a primary industry in the county. After the Civil War, many African-Americans owned farms, worked as day laborers on local farms and worked in the pork industry.

​Peanut Industry
Gwaltney-Bunkley Peanut Factory
When peanuts dominated the waterfront in Smithfield, many African-American men and women were employed in the peanut warehouses. Circa 1900.

Business
Stores & Garages
R.H. Blount Country Store, advertising and letterhead from Charlie Ford Garage.

Pork Industry
Charles Henry Gray
1919-1986
​

Farming
Arthur R. Glover Sr.
The Glover Family Farm was awarded Virginia's Outstanding Negro Farm Family of 1956. The farm grew peanuts, corn and hogs.

Businessman
James R. Pretlow Jr.
Owner of Pretlow & Pretlow General Contractors

pretlow_biography.pdf
File Size: 116 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

HEALTH & EDUCATION

​​Educators
The Pretlows
Kenneth Pretlow and his wife Arinthea were dedicated teachers. He spearheaded the movement to open the first black high school - Isle of Wight Training School - in the county.

Educator
Georgie D. Tyler
Georgie Tyler dedicated 34 years to Isle of Wight Schools. In 1917, she was given charge of 27 segregated schools in the county. Georgie D. Tyler School in Windsor is named in her honor.

​​Educator, Writer
Elgin M. Lowe Sr.
1914-2000

An educator for 39 years, Elgin Lowe recorded the history of local African-American communities. His collective works are in the archives of Norfolk and Virginia State Universities. 

tyler_bio.pdf
File Size: 44 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

a_black_college_at_the_crossroads.pdf
File Size: 2107 kb
File Type: pdf
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obituary_daily_press.pdf
File Size: 119 kb
File Type: pdf
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Mid-Wife
Hattie Warren
Hattie Warren, also known as Miss Peach, of Zuni, became a licensed, self-employed midwife in 1945. She delivered more than 1,000 babies in Isle of Wight County and the surrounding area. She recorded the birth of each baby she delivered. Read her memories of her work in the book Many Voices, a collection of Isle of Wight County oral histories from 1900 to 1950.

Educator
Benjamin F. Turner
An educator with Isle of Wight County and Surry, Benjamin Turner began his work as a teacher at Lawnes School in Rushmere.

Education
Schoolhouse Museum
516 Main Street
The Smithfield Schoolhouse Museum was built in 1932 as an addtion to the circa 1924 Christian Home School, an historic Rosenwald School. 
Visit their website here.
 ​

biography_-_turner.pdf
File Size: 93 kb
File Type: pdf
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PUBLIC SERVICE

Elected Official
Henry H. Bradby
A graduate of the Isle of Wight Training School, Henry Bradby became the first African-American elected to the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors. He held the seat for 30 years and was instrumental in developing the Rushmere Volunteer Department. 

obituary_bradby.pdf
File Size: 87 kb
File Type: pdf
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Elected Official
James Banks Brown Jr.
1938-2015

A graduate of the Isle of Wight Training School and Howard University, James Brown had a career as a naval designer with the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. He served on the Isle of Wight County School Board and the Isle of Wight County Board of Supervisors until his retirement.

obituary.pdf
File Size: 88 kb
File Type: pdf
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CHURCHES

Windsor
Chapel Grove United Church of Christ
Established in 1868

Smithfield
Main Street Baptist
Established in 1881

Smithfield
Rising Star Baptist Church
Established in 1900

SPORTS, ENTERTAINMENT AND CULTURE

Basketball
Vivian Greene Brown
A 1974 graduate of Smithfield High School, Vivian Greene received a full scholarship to Norfolk State University where she was the first basketball player to score 2,000 points. After she graduated, she was drafted into the Women's Professional Basketball League for the Dayton Rockettes. 

Basketball
James M. Boykins Jr.
A 1988 graduate of Windsor High School, James Boykins Jr. played basketball for Christopher Newport University as well as professional teams in Australia and Sweden.

Composer, Minister of Music
Charles T. Ford
1947-2017
Charles Ford, a musical icon, touched the lives of numerous churches, musicians and vocalists. He served as president of the Hampton University Choir Directors' and Organists' Guild and served Main Street Baptist Church for 40 years. ​

biography_ford.pdf
File Size: 905 kb
File Type: pdf
Download File

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