New Story Map Focuses on Fauquier’s African-American Heritage

New Story Map Focuses on Fauquier’s African-American Heritage

Photo by Hugh Kenny, PEC Karen Hughes White (AAHA) and Kristie Kendall (PEC) outside the Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County headquarters in The Plains.

Photo by Hugh Kenny, PEC

In 1860, about half of Fauquier County’s population was made up of free and enslaved African-Americans.

But on the heels of the historical periods of slavery, Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the great migration, civil rights and integration, descendants of these residents now make up less than 10 percent of Fauquier’s population. Only remnants of their many communities are still present, yet their contributions to Association of Fauquier County headquarters Fauquier County remain.

The Afro-American Historical Association of Fauquier County (AAHA) and The Piedmont Environmental Council, with assistance from Fauquier County’s GIS department and funding from The PATH Foundation, have teamed up to develop and launch a digital story map that attempts to tell the history of the lives of these often overlooked and forgotten Americans.

“For many years, I have envisioned a map of Fauquier County with various overlays pertaining to African-American history,” said Karen Hughes White, president of AAHA. “When Kristie [Kendall, PEC historic preservation coordinator] and I talked about it, I thought: yes! This would be one layer of African-American heritage, and immediately my mind started racing about all the other stories and history that could be continuously compiled.

“A lot of Fauquier’s history is well documented, but the African-American presence is often invisible within textbooks and other areas.”

The new interactive story map, visible at www.aahafauquier.org/storymap, includes a map of Fauquier County with points locating African-American schools, churches and communities established before and after the Civil War.

Visitors can click on each point to see a photo and read a short description. A “read more” cue takes visitors to an interactive webpage with additional history and photographs.

Kendall said the project was a “massive undertaking” on the part of AAHA staff, who led the project and built upon decades of prior research identifying and documenting the history of African-Americans in the county.

The PEC provided drone photography, and with its story mapping experience, created the interactive web map embedded within the story map site, which is hosted through PEC’s ArcGIS Online subscription.

For AAHA Board Member Angela Davidson, the story map project has given her “a whole new sense of pride in families that came through Reconstruction to today.”

Davidson is one of four generations living on property purchased in the early 1870s by her great-great grandfather, Brister Grigsby, in historic Morgantown.

As increasing development and property taxes continue to impact these communities, Davidson said, “I think all of us, at my age and younger, are looking at how long these communities will remain intact. I’m afraid if we don’t get this history documented, it will be lost.

“If new owners know the history of what’s taken place on the property they’re buying, they’ll take pride in these historic communities in which they’re living.”

Over time, AAHA is hoping to add other African-American contributions, including cemeteries, buildings, businesses, baptism sites and landmarks pertaining to the underground railroad.

And the group hopes other community members will recommend additions as they realize they have photographs or other artifacts that can be shared through the story map.

“This will be something that will definitely live beyond us,” Hughes White said.