Enfilade

Now on view at the VMHC:

Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619–1865

Virginia Museum of History and Culture, Richmond, 14 June 2025 — 4 July 2027

Bringing together artifacts and rich stories from across the Commonwealth, Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619–1865 tells the stories of free Black Virginians from the arrival of the first captive Africans in 1619 to the abolition of slavery in 1865. It is one of the first museum exhibitions to cover the subject in depth.

Through powerful artifacts, first-person accounts, and more than 200 years of stories, visitors will discover how Virginia’s people of color achieved their freedom, established communities, and persevered within a legal system that recognized them as free but not equal. Featured alongside artifacts spanning hundreds of years will be newly commissioned portraits by award-winning photographer Ruddy Roye, who TIME named ‘Instagram Photographer of the Year’, of some of the descendants of free Black Virginians who shared their stories and objects to help create the exhibition.

Building upon research about centuries of free Black Virginians and regional exhibitions focused on local communities, Un/Bound endeavors to encapsulate the broader, statewide story in depth and at a yet-to-be-seen scale through a collection of artifacts and rich histories told by descendants and experts. This exhibition was created by the VMHC in collaboration with subject matter experts and five institutions of higher education—Norfolk State University, Virginia State University, William & Mary, Longwood University and Richard Bland College—bringing together resources and knowledge to tell a compelling story of Virginia. The exhibition is on display alongside VMHC’s multiyear commemorative exhibitions and displays related to America’s 250th anniversary.

The accompanying book is published by D. Giles:

Cassandra Newby-Alexander, Melvin Patrick Ely, Sabrina Watson, Evanda Watts-Martinez, and Stephen Rockenbach, Un/Bound: Free Black Virginians, 1619–1865 (London: D. Giles, 2025), 176 pages, ISBN: 978-1913875619, $30.

On the eve of the Civil War, around 60,000 Black men, women and children lived free in the state of Virginia, often alongside enslaved neighbours. This volume is a history documenting the richness and variety of their lives. Although many stayed in Virginia, living, working and thriving despite serious threats to their lives, some moved north or, further still, across the Atlantic to Liberia. In studying the lives of free Black Virginians prior to emancipation, this volume explores an under-told and inspirational story of Virginia’s past. By delving into collections across the Commonwealth, whether the records of the state or testimonies left by free Black people themselves, this new volume fills a critical gap in our understanding of Virginia’s Black history.

c o n t e n t s

Foreword — James W. Dyke, Jr., Tim Sullivan, and Alvin J. Schexnider
Acknowledgments — Jamie O. Bosket

Introduction — Elizabeth M. Klaczynski
1  Black Freedom in Slaveholding Virginia — Melvin Patrick Ely
2  The Christian Faith and Legacies of Liberation in Virginia’s Free Black Society — Evanda S. Watts-Martinez
3  Free Black People in Rural Virginia: Forms of Resistance — Sabrina G. Watson
4  Joseph Jenkins Roberts, Free Black Émigrés, and the Liberian Experiment — Cassandra L. Newby-Alexander
5  Education, Politics, and the Legacy of Free Black Virginians after Emancipation — Stephen Rockenbach
Afterword — Jamie O. Bosket

Contributors
Endnotes
Index