Petitions – The UncommonWealth

“Your Humble Petitioner”: William Caswell’s Success Against the Odds

Katie Drash Mapes, history graduate student at VCU and museum educator with Preservation Virginia, shares what she discovered about William Caswell, a free Black man,…

Guest ContributorMay 20, 2024

“Manifest Danger” : Smallpox Epidemics Hit 19th-Century Chesterfield

Given the current coronavirus health crisis, processing a small collection of Chesterfield County smallpox epidemic records from the 19th century seemed to be a timely…

Tracy HarterApril 22, 2020

It’s a Tram Shame: A Spotsylvania County Petition

In 1906, Thomas M. Henry of Sewickley, Pennsylvania, had a grand idea. He would build a road to carry an electric tram from Fredericksburg to…

Joanne PorterMay 9, 2018

A Last Resort: Madison County Reenslavement Petitions

In 1856, the General Assembly decided that free African Americans could petition their county or city court to be enslaved. These individuals had to be…

Cara GriggsJanuary 11, 2017

Archives Digital Projects

Virginia Untold: The African American Narrative Digital Collection

In 1820, Rachel Findley won freedom for herself and more than 35 of her descendants in a Powhatan County court in a law suit dating…

Greg CrawfordFebruary 3, 2016