The African American Experience in Cabell County, Virginia / West Virginia, 1825–1870
The African American Experience in Cabell County, Virginia / West Virginia, 1825–1870
This chapter studies the African American experience in Cabell County, Virginia, and West Virginia, prior to the founding of Huntington in 1871. Situated in southwestern Virginia adjacent to the Ohio River, the “River Jordan,” the county’s cheap, arable land and strategic location prompted increasing numbers of slaveholders to settle with their slaves. It centers its periodization from 1825 to 1870 to show the importance of slave labor, best illustrated by examination of Greenbottom Plantation, the county’s largest, to the growing affluence of the county’s white residents. Notably, as their status and aspirations became increasingly linked to the local, regional, and national debates and controversies over slavery, evidence shows the county’s slaves regularly exploited opportunities and spaces not found further east to better their circumstance.
Keywords: slaves and free blacks, Underground Railroad, Greenbottom Plantation, The River Jordan, Civil War, occupational literacy
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