Discover the Valley's African American History

Belle Grove Plantation relied on the labor of over 100 enslaved people during its peak as one of the largest farms in Frederick County, Virginia. They worked in the main house, extensive grain fields, and as skilled craftsmen. On several occasions, African Americans enslaved at Belle Grove took steps to attain their own freedom. Whether through escape, purchase by loved ones, or manumission, their stories are important to understanding the history of the plantation.

Born enslaved, James Foster did additional work as a shoemaker to earn wages and support his free family. When his property was taken by Federal soldiers before the 1864 Battle of Cedar Creek, he filed paperwork for repayment. This paperwork tells the story of a Unionist family caught between freedom and slavery in the Shenandoah Valley.

Archaeologists surveyed and excavated the Enslaved Quarter Site at Belle Grove from 2015 through 2019. Based on this research, an illustration partly reconstructs the site as it may have appeared in the early 1800s.

Emancipation celebrations in the Shenandoah Valley, the earliest recorded instance of which occurred in Winchester in early January 1868, offered an opportunity to not only commemorate slavery’s destruction, but directly challenge the Lost Cause.

African Americans lived, worked, built, and died in the Valley. Stories centered in what is today Cedar Creek and Belle Grove National Historical Park spread across the Valley encompassing the lives of many.

US General Robert Milroy, devout Presbyterian, staunch Republican, and an ardent abolitionist, quickly became a polarizing figure in occupied Winchester, Virginia.

Major Isaac Hite, Jr. and his family recorded 276 enslaved people that they owned between 1783 and 1851.

The Shenandoah Valley had small family farms that owned none, one or a few enslaved people. The Valley also had larger plantations with many enslaved people. White residents of the Valley were all economically connected to slavery. Therefore, their culture, like that of the rest of the United States, was part of a system of race-based slavery and they used racism, violence, and fear to maintain it.