Existing comment:
Freedom:
All of the men and women pictured here were slaves in the Fredericksburg region when the Civil War began.
Joseph Walker of Spotsylvania. Freed by war at 10 years old [doesn't that read horribly?], he later help found the Fredericksburg Normal and Industrial Institute -- the first high school for African Americans in Fredricksburg.
James and Eliza Lewis of Spotsylvania. James worked first as a sharecropped and then bought 23 acres. They raised 13 children. Courtesy John J. Wright Museum.
Osborne Merrick of Falmouth was 85 in 1862. He claimed freedom with Union lines, but died within months -- before he was able to enjoy it. |