History of Enslaved Communities at UVA – Lecture and Walking Tour II

1826 University Avenue,Charlottesville VA 22904

24 August, 2022

Description

Overview Join Lifetime Learning for an engaging program on the history of the enslaved people who labored to build and operate UVA’s Academical Village. The morning will begin in the Multipurpose Room in UVA’s Rotunda with a lecture by Professor of Architectural History and Vice Provost for Academic Outreach Louis Nelson, co-editor of Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s University. Participants will then visit sites on foot around Grounds where the history of slavery and the resilience of the Black community will be described by some of the descendants who have spearheaded the developing history. UVA students will also assist in the walking tour. We will conclude the event in the Multipurpose Room for a question and answer with Professor Nelson. Walking Tour sites: • Garden of Pavilion VI: The University has just begun envisioning the next chapter for the garden of Pavilion VI. Participants can visit the garden, see digital reconstructions of the garden before the Civil War, and learn more about the redesign and acknowledgment process. • Pavilion X: In 2021, UVA historians worked with Dean Ian Solomon of the Frank Batten School of Public Policy and Leadership, the first African American resident of the upstairs of Pavilion X, to develop and install an extensive exhibition on the African American community that occupied the site through the building’s first half-century. • University Cemetery: In 2012, archaeologists detected evidence of unmarked graves behind the University Cemetery. After further investigation, it became clear that this was an African American burial ground that included at least 67 burials, most of which were likely of enslaved people, both adults, and children. • Kitty Foster site: In 2011, the University dedicated the Kitty Foster site, which memorializes Canada, a Free Black community that emerged just south of the University through the 19th century. Including a cemetery and a memorial to the house of the community’s matriarch, the site is an important opportunity to revisit the struggle of African Americans to secure and hold land around the University. This program includes walking tours with extensive time on foot and standing. ______________________________________________________ Support the Descendants of Enslaved Communities at UVA with a gift to: https://www.givecampus.com/campaigns/19472/donations/new Select the designation: Memorial to Enslaved Laborers Programming and Initiatives Speaker Biography Louis Nelson, Vice Provost for Academic Outreach and Professor, Architectural History, University of Virginia Louis P. Nelson is Professor of Architectural History and the Vice Provost for Academic Outreach. He is a specialist in the built environments of the early modern Atlantic world, with published work on the American South, the Caribbean, and West Africa, and is a leading advocate for the reconstruction of place-based public history. At UVA and in Charlottesville, this work has taken the form of scholarship that contextualizes the four monuments installed at the height of Jim Crow segregation, walking tours and movies that seek to disseminate a broader understand of how racism is inscribed in the local landscape, a university renaming commission, partnership on a new website for and a narrative interpretation of the new Memorial to Enslaved Laborers, and co-editing both a digital series on UVA and the History of Race and Educated in Tyranny: Slavery at Thomas Jefferson’s University. Nelson was also the lead author and co-PI on Race, Place and Equity, a $5M Andrew Mellon Foundation funded grant. Agenda 8:45 am Check-In: The Rotunda, Multipurpose Room 9:00 am – 10:00 am Lecture 10:00 am – 11:30 am Tours (we will break into 4 groups and rotate the tours) 11:30 am – 12:00 pm Group regathers in the Multipurpose Room for Q&A Cancellation and Refund Policy If you can not attend, please email Susan Lynch at [email protected] so we can invite someone to participate from the waitlist. Parking Information Central Grounds Garage The Central Grounds Garage is conveniently located under the University Bookstore at 400 Emmet Street, and is near Newcomb Hall, Memorial Gymnasium, Brown College, and the Clemons Library. Hourly parking may be paid via the ParkMobile app. Culbreth Road Garage The Culbreth Road Garage, located in the Arts Grounds at 130 Culbreth Road, is available for hourly visitor parking. Hourly parking may be paid via the ParkMobile app. This garage is an ideal location for guests visiting the School of Architecture, Culbreth Theater, Madison Hall, the Art Museum, and is also a short walk from Central Grounds. Participant Physical Abilities This program includes walking tours with extensive time on foot and standing.