

New in Virginiana

10/02/2017 - 1:46pm

When Glory came out in 1989, movie audiences were excited to see a relatively unknown side of the Civil War that highlighted the sacrifices of the Massachusetts 54th, a “colored” volunteer regiment. Gripping as the story that unfolded on the screen was, there was much more to it, of course. In real life, other people’s stories became part of the regiment’s history as the Civil War gripped the nation.

John Mercer Langston, along with Frederick Douglass, acted as a recruiter for the 54th. As an abolitionist and orator, he was an excellent choice, and this task was just one of Langston’s civic accomplishments. Although he had spent most of his life in a free state, John was familiar with plantation life. His father had been a white plantation owner in Louisa County, Virginia—not far from Spotsylvania. His mother had been his father’s slave. But his parents’ story was not a common one for the era. His father freed his mother, and, although they were not allowed to marry for legal reasons, they lived together as man and wife for the rest of their days, their children considered to be freeborn.

02/20/2013 - 2:59pm


11/09/2012 - 11:13am
John Randolph of Roanoke by David Johnson


11/09/2012 - 10:38am




10/04/2012 - 10:15am
Eye of the Storm


07/18/2012 - 12:38pm
Colonial Churches of Virginia, by Don W. and Sue Massey


03/12/2012 - 10:43am

The American Revolution didn’t start with the Tea Party.



02/14/2011 - 8:43am
Jefferson's Nephews: A Frontier Tragedy

They say every family has its black sheep.

09/16/2010 - 10:30am


08/18/2010 - 10:31am



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