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Seeking Lost African American Stories
Seeking Lost African American Stories
By Jodi Nash
“If there is no struggle, there is no progress.”
When Frederick Douglass spoke these words in an 1857 speech delivered in New York, it was a consequence of his own arduous struggle for freedom from the slavery he was born into on Maryland’s Eastern Shore.
He went on to become a revered social reformer, abolitionist, orator, impassioned writer, journalist and statesman. Yet, if he hadn’t penned three separate and graphically detailed autobiographies, the story of his life and legacy as the nation’s most powerful voice against slavery might have been lost, like the stories of so many enslaved people in America.
For many, their “roots” are shrouded in mystery. Enter Karen Hughes White, president and director of the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County (AAHA) in The Plains.
On Jan. 15, 2024, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday, the AAHA launched Phase 2 of its “Know Their Names” project. Merging 16 data sets, now containing over 70,000 entries, AAHA’s mission to document Fauquier’s African-American experience has advanced significantly.
Born and raised here, Karen is a descendant of free and enslaved AfricanAmerican Virginians dating back to the early 1700s. On a personal quest for books for her second-grade daughter featuring images that looked like her, Karen’s interest in building her family tree took her to various historical societies and courthouse record rooms in Fauquier and all around the area. She was stunned by the paucity of recorded information on African Americans.
Unable to find a record of her grandmother’s birth, she discovered that from 1897 to 1912, no Virginia law existed requiring that births and deaths be recorded. Prior to then, enslaved (or Freedmen) may or may not have appeared in federal U.S. census “slave schedules” under the names of their owners.
Karen faced a daunting task, one she took on fervently in the late 1980s with her friend, Karen Lavore. As they dove into their family genealogy research, the friendship blossomed, and their journey expanded into researching and documenting the African American family experience in Fauquier County.
They founded the non-profit AAHA in 1992.Since then, Karen, her older sister Angela Davidson, and AAHA staff and volunteers have devoted themselves to painstakingly abstracting every scrap of information that can be gleaned from primary source documents and informal family records. The information is loaded into numerous spreadsheets and data bases, unearthing recognition of the buried stories and blurred lineage of Fauquier’s African American enslaved.
The goal: identify every person enslaved in the county, a bold endeavor, putting names to the men, women and children frequently acknowledged with only a single five-letter word: SLAVE. Karen doubted the mission would be accomplished in her lifetime.
In 2018, a fortuitous call came from businessman and philanthropist Mark Ohrstrom. Petitioning to have his 118-acre family farm in The Plains included in the National Register of Historical Places, he wanted to acknowledge the enslaved who worked there.
Using the names of the farm’s owners in the 1800s to check AAHA’s archives, Karen quickly identified 18 people, many with only a single name and an assigned dollar value, though many had labored there many years. Ohrstrom plans to commemorate them with a monument on his land, and welcome any descendants who want to visit the farm.
In 2019, the Warrenton-based PATH Foundation, and an article by Angela Roberts of the Piedmont Journalism Foundation that generated much interest, one thing became clear. By fall the of 2022, with 50,000 entries across multiple data sources, a master database was required. This would also provide a way to make the information accessible to the public, both online and on-site. After further discussions with the John Marshall Center for Constitutional History & Civics and the Oak Spring Garden Foundation in Upperville, AAHA applied for a grant from the Virginia Museum of History and Culture (VMHC).
On Jan. 11, 2023, VMHC awarded them a $50,000 grant from their Commonwealth History Fund sponsored by Dominion Energy, and the project team went to work.
The “Know Their Names” data can now be accessed from home, or by a visit to AAHA. The 4,200-square-foot museum on the lower level is home to 1,634 artifacts detailing the rich history of Fauquier County’s Black residents. It’s open to the public, schools and other organizations.
The 2,300-square-foot auditorium hosts special events, and the upper level houses a reference library and research room containing thousands of books and database information.
This way, after struggle, there is progress, thanks to the passion and tenacity of Karen White and Karen Lavore. For anyone searching for their lost stories, a visit or online virtual tour is a must.
For more information, see https://www.aahafauquier.org.
